
Gass \ i -' '^■■'' 
Book ' ^i 



,f\ 






SKETCHES 



or 



WILLIAM PENN 



BY WILLIAM a1 ALCOTT. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY D. S. KING 

'62 Washin;,'ton sJtieet. 

1839. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 

Br D. S. King, 

In the Clerk's omce of the District Court of Massachusetts 






D. H. EliA, PRINTEil. 



TO CHILDREN 



SABBATH SCHOOLS 



My dear young Friends, 

From my earliest youth I have been 
delighted with many things in the character 
of William Penn, the founder of the great 
State of Pennsylvania. His very name 
brings to my mind the most pleasant associa- 
tions of ideas. He was so good a father and 
husband, so affectionate and kind to all his 
friends, and to every body whom he met 



with, and, above all, so good and friendly to 
the poor Indians, by whom he and his people 
were for a long time surrounded, that it is 
impossible for me to avoid esteeming and 
loving him ; and notwithstanding he belonged 
to the Society of Friends, or as they are 
sometimes called, Quakers, and held to some 
opinions which I believe to be erroneous, I 
cannot help wishing that there were no worse 
people in the world than he was. 

Perhaps some of you are already acquaint- 
ed with his character, having read his life, as 
written by others. If so, you probably have 
brothers, or sisters, or cousins, or neighbors, 
who have not been, in this respect, so fortu- 
nate. To them^ therefore, you can commend 



the book, even if you do not wish to read it 
yourselves. You can do so, I mean, if you 
hke it. It is not intended to be a full and 
perfect account of the distinguished individual 
of whom it treats, but rather a collection of 
stories about him, procured or abridged from 
larger histories, designed to show you what 
sort of a man he was; and in so far as his 
behavior was proper and right, and Christ-like 
— but no farther — lead you to imitate his ex- 
ample. 

W. A. A. 

Boston, January, 1839. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Birth of Penn. His early education. His good beha- 
vior and scholarship. Difficulties at school. Is ex- 
pelled. Returns to his father. Is punished, and 
turned out of doors. His mother's interference. He 
is sent abroad to travel. Sudden return at the re- 
quest of his father. His father not satisfied with him. 
Sends him to Ireland. Is imprisoned there. Descrip- 
tion of his person. Release from prison. Returns 
to England. Again turned out of doors. Reflec- 
tions Page 11 

CHAPTER II. 

Penn becomes a preacher and author. Is seized and 
imprisoned in the Tower of London. Remains in 
prison seven months. Employment in prison. Re- 
lease. Goes again to Ireland. Returns. Preaches 
in England. Is arrested again, and sent to Newgate. 
His trial. Attempt to starve the jurors. Sent again 



VUl CONTENTS. 

to prison. His release. Reconciliation with his 
father. His father's death. Inheritance of property. 
Its effects. Seized again. Tried. Condemned to 
six months imprisonment in Newgate. Release. 
Marriage. Residence. Labors. Visit to Holland 
and Germany. Return. Storm at sea. Anecdotes 
about prayer to God. ..... 30 

CHAPTER III. 

New era in the life of Penn. Becomes interested in the 
provinces in America. West Jersey. Prepares a 
constitution for it. Its excellent features. Purchases 
of the king the province of Pennsylvania. Measures 
for settling it. Provisions in regard to the Indians. 
His letter to them. His directions to his own 
people. ....... 48 

CHAPTER IV. 

Death of Penn's mother. His affection for her. His 
thoughts turned to America. Resolves to go there. 
His advice to his children on leaving them. He sets 
sail. Incidents of the voyage. Arrival at Newcas- 
tle , . . 63 

CHAPTER V. 

Penn's treaty with the Indians. The elm tree at Ken- 
sington. Anecdotes of it. Scarcity of provisions. 
The Indians hunt for the whites. Founding of Phil- 
adelphia. Directions of Penn about building it. 
Cultivation of the country. What was doing for the 
Indians. . - 81 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER VI. 

Persecution in England. Penn goes there. Solicits 
the king. The king's death. John Locke the philo- 
sopher. The new king of England. Penn's famil- 
iarity with him. This raises up enemies. A new 
book. The dissenters — among them were 1200 
Friends — set at liberty. Tour to the Continent. 
Return. Arrest. Trial. Acquittal. Toleration 
act. Another trial and acquittal. A third trial and 
acquittal. Thinks of going to America. Attends the 
funeral of George Fox. Attempts to seize him 
again. His retirement. Is proscribed by the queen; 
but not taken. New troubles. Death of his wife. 

95 

CHAPTER VII. 

Penn in his family. He attempts to recover his lost 
possessions in America. His success. His reputa- 
tion again rises. Anecdote of Fuller. Missionary 
labors. Marriage to a second wife. Death of his 
son. He sails with his family for America. Phila- 
delphia. Penn's house. Pennsburg. The Indians. 
An Indian feast. Anecdotes of Penn. More troubles. 
Goes to England. Troubles in regard to his pro- 
perty. Ill conduct of his eldest son. Dishonesty of 
his steward. He lives for some time within prison 
limits. Mortgages his property to regain his liberty. 
Attack of apoplexy. His death. . . .114 



SKETCHES 



WILLIAM PENN 



CHAPTER I. 



Birth of Penn. His early education. His good beha- 
vior and scholarship. DifficuUies at school. Is ex- 
pelled. Returns to his father. Is punished, and 
turned out of doors. His mother's interference. He 
is sent abroad to travel. Sudden return at the re- 
quest of his father. His father not satisfied with him. 
Sends him to Ireland. Is imprisoned there. Descrip- 
tion of his person. Release from prison. Returns 
to England. Again turned out of doors. Reflections. 

William Penn was bom in London, 
October 14, 1644. His father was Sir 
William Penn, a British admiral. Of his 
mother, and of her ways of managing her 
children, little is said in history. The father, 



12 SKETCHES OF 

wealthy and distinguished as he was, and 
especially anxious to give his son William 
a liberal education, sent him early to a 
grammar school, where he appears to hav£ 
^"S?^"^^ several years. It was at Chigwell 
in Essex, at some distance from London, 
and was a most excellent school. It does 
not seem to have been one of those schools 
in which the Bible, and prayer and other 
acts of religion and religious worship, are as 
effectually shut out, as if they had nothing 
to do with school, and were only to be 
attended to on the Sabbath ; for it was while 
at this school, and when only eleven years 
of age, that young Penn first received those 
religious impressions which lasted him 
through life, and which were the means, 
under God, of rendering him one of the most 
useful men of his day. 

From this school, his father removed him 
to another which was much nearer home, 
and — what was not so common amono- the 



WILLIAM PENN. 13 

wealthy English gentlemen at that time as it 
has since become — procured for him a 
private tutor besides. The truth is, that the 
admiral was determined, if possible, to make 
a great man of him ; though, of making him 
a good man as well as a great one, we do 
not know that he had at that time thought 
much. He was determined, at least, to give 
him every opportunity of becoming great, 
which learning would afford him, and then, if 
he did not become what he designed, the 
fault would rest with the son, and not with 
himself. 

At the age of fifteen, young Penn had 
made such progress in his studies that he 
was thought well fitted for college. He was 
accordingly entered at Christ's Church 
College at Oxford. Here, for some time, 
he behaved exceedingly well, as he had 
formerly done. He not only attended 
faithfully to his studies and endeavored to 
understand them well, but he did what young 
2 



14 SKETCHES OF 

men of that age are not always careful to cloy 
he used proper and sufficient exercise, as well 
as studied hard. He allowed himself in all 
those active and manly sports in the open air, 
which are so well calculated to make the 
body strong and healthful ; though never, 
that we know of, in cards, dice or any games 
of chance. For amusements of the mind, 
he sought the society of pleasant and well 
informed friends ; among whom was the 
celebrated philosopher, John Locke. 

Thus far, he had done nothing to give 
offence or pain to his relatives and friends, or 
to lessen his reputation in the view of the 
world, or to draw off his mind from the 
subject of religion. On the contrary, he was 
beloved by all who knew him, more and 
more; and it is no wonder that his father's 
hopes were greatly raised respecting him. 

Not long after his entrance into college, 
however, he began to attend the preaching of 
one Thomas Loe, a very eccentric or 



WILLIAM PENN. 15 

si^ngular preacher, but apparently a good 
man. He appears to have been connected 
with the Society of Friends. As the 
doctrines taught by Mr, Loe led young 
Penn to think it was not proper for him to 
attend church where he had formerly done, 
and as he was always careful to do what his 
conscience told him was fit and proper, he 
withdrew, with some of his fellow students 
who had also fallen into the notions of Mr. 
Loe, and they held a meeting of their 
own. But their very absence from the 
place where they were accustomed .o attend 
gave offence to the officers of the colleo-e, 
and they were fined for not attending at the 
estalished place of worship. 

This, however, neither led them to re- 
turn to the old place of worship, nor pre- 
vented them from attending at their new one. 
They were determined to act accordino- to 
the dictates of their own consciences, let 
what would happen. They thought they 



16 SKETCHES OF 

were right ; and in doing what they believed 
to be their duty, they thought they were 
obeying God in preference to obeying men. 

So far they acted conscientiously, and for 
aught we can see, at this day, as good people 
ought to act. But this was not all. They 
went a little farther still ; indeed, quite too 
far. They seem to have been somewhat 
irritated by being fined, and they became 
revengeful. This was very wrong. They 
ought to have been quiet and forgiving. 
This was especially incumbent on them, as 
they were young, and liable to be mistaken. 
Young Penn, especially, wise as he seemed 
to be on most occasions, ought to have set 
his companions a good example of conformity 
to the spirit of that religion which teaches its 
followers to forgive abuses, not merely to the 
seventieth time, but to the four hundred and 
ninetieth. 

I have said they became revengeful. The 
case was this. The king had given orders 



WILLIAM PENN. H 

that the students of the college at Oxford 
should wear surplices. This, Penn and his 
companions, who had probably adopted some 
of the views of the Society of the Friends 
about plainness in dress, could not at all 
bear. They were not only determined not 
to wear surplices, but to prevent the other 
students from wearing them, if they could. 
So having formed their plan, they made a 
sudden attack upon the students in their new 
surplices, and tore them violently off. 

This soon made a great noise in college, 
and well it might. It is painful to relate so 
unwarrantable an act of so worthy and 
excellent a character as was the leader in 
this affray. But as it was the first shameful 
act in which he had ever been engaged, so it 
proved the last, if we except one or two 
instances of stubbornness. 

But the deed was done, and Penn and 
his associates were obliged to suffer the 
consequences. The leaders, and of course 
2* 



18 SKETCHES or 

Perm among the rest, were expelled from 
college. The father of the latter was greatly 
displeased, and was almost unwilling to see 
him, when he came home. All his high 
hopes of him seemed crushed in a moment 
by a single rash act. And what grieved him 
still more, was to find that the son would not 
own he had been in the wrong. It is true 
he did not quite like — and never had done — 
the serious habits in regard to dress, 
conversation and company his son had 
adopted before he went to college ; but these 
he could have borne with, had nothing else 
happened. 

And what was the course, do you tliink, 
he finally took with him ? It was a very 
injudicious course indeed. But fathers 
sometimes do wrong. It was not well to 
treat a young man of seventeen like a boy of 
four or five ; especially one of a character 
which inclined to obstinacy. But he was a 
naval commander, and he acted as many 



WILLIAM PENN. 19 

Other naval commanders would probably 
have done. Unable to convince his son of 
his error, by reasoning with him, he had 
recourse to blows ; and finding these to fail 
of producing the effect he intended, he went 
farther still, and actually turned .his_son out 
of doors. 

It is difficult to say which was most in 
fault in the case, the father or the son. But 
as the son was first in the wrong, it will be 
natural to rest the weight of the blame on 
him. The father, however, ought not to 
have done wrong because the son had ; but 
the son, in a case which seems so plainly 
wrong to us at this day and period, ought not 
to have continued to resist the force of his 
father's arguments. 

The mother of young Penn was possessed 
of a very different temper from that of the 
father. When the first g:ust of passion had 
subsided, she endeavored to reconcile the 
parties ; and so soft and winning were her 



20 SKETCHES OF 

manners that she finally succeeded, and the 
offender was restored to his father's house. 

But the father, though he forgave, could 
not quite forget. He disliked the religious 
company his son was disposed to keep, and 
earnestly wished there was some way to 
work a change in his mind and feelings, and 
make him relish better the society of the 
gay and the cheerful. He finally hit upon a 
plan which he thought would accomplish the 
object, and he accordingly proceeded to put 
it in execution. Finding that some of his 
friends were goinoj out to France to travel in 
that country, it was resolved that young 
Penn should accompany them. 

His first residence was at Paris ; but we 
cannot easily suppose such a gay and 
dissipated city would please him long : and 
accordingly we find him soon removed to 
Saumur. 

There is one anecdote related of him 
while at Paris, which, if true, and it probably 



WILLIAM PENN. 21 

is, so from what we learn of his future 
character, is certainly very creditable to him, 
when we consider the natural impetuosity 
and rashness of youth. Being in the street 
one evening, a man attacked him and drew 
his sword upon him. Penn grappled with 
him and a severe conflict ensued. At length 
Penn succeeded in disarming his antaojonist, 
but he spared his life, when he might easily 
have taken it. 

After spending several months at Saumur, 
he went to Italy. Here, he received a letter 
from his father, saying, that having been 
ordered to take the command of his fleet, he 
wished the son to take charge of the family 
during his absence. The latter was now, 
probably, about nineteen years of age. 

The request of the father was at once 
complied with. The family received him 
with open arms. For though he had lost 
nothing of the relio^ious character with which 
he went out, his manners had certainly 



22 SKETCHES OF 

become greatly improved, and he had 
acquired something of that Hvehness and 
pohshj for which the French nation has so 
long been distinguished. This was highly- 
satisfactory to his father. 

While at home with the family, during the 
absence of his father, he paid a little 
attention to the study of the law, especially 
the constitution and laws of his native 
country. The knowledge of this kind which 
he obtained, though it did not at all fit him 
for a profession — which, indeed, was not 
intended, — proved afterwards of very great 
service to him. 

During the same period, his mind became 
changed again to its original serious state, 
and he associated with none but grave and 
serious people. When his father returned 
from sea, and observed the change, he sent 
him off to Ireland to reside in the family of 
the lord lieutenant, who was an acquaintance 
of Admiral Penn, in whose society he hoped 



WILLIAM PENN. 23 

he would, once more, regain his temporary- 
fondness for gay society. But no; all the 
pomp and splendor and temptations, even of 
a life at court, were insufficient to change his 
habits, tastes or pursuits. 

Not willing to give it up. Admiral Penn 
made one more effort. Having large estates 
in Ireland, he gave to his son their sole 
management, believing that the care of them, 
if he consented to take charge of them at all, 
would employ all his time, and detain him at 
a distance from all his former connections. 
The son, always willing to comply with his 
father's wishes, where nothing was required 
which either conscience or the word of God 
told him was wrong, at once consented ; and 
the father began again to take courage. 

But a circumstance soon occurred which 
broke up the whole arrangement. Being 
one day at Cork, on business, young Penn 
heard that a meeting was about to be held 
there by his old friend Thomas Loe^ and 



2.4 SKETCHES OF 

could not resist the temptation of going to 
hear him. The subject of his discourse was, 
"There is a faith which overcomes the 
world." The impression made on his mind 
was so strong, that, from this time forth, he 
resolved to attach himself openly to the 
Friends ; he accordingly began to attend, 
very steadily, their meetings. 

But he soon found how strong the public 
prejudices were against the new sect, and 
that he must expect to meet with persecution. 
One day, while attending a meeting, he was 
seized by an officer, and carried before the 
mayor of the city, for trial, on the ground 
that he had been favoring tumultuous 
assemblies. As he had not yet fully adopted 
the Friends' dress, they offered to set him at 
liberty, if he would only give bonds for his 
good behavior ; but refusing to do this, he 
was, with eighteen other persons, committed 
to prison. 

When committed to prison, he was in the 



WILLIAM PENN. 25 

twenty third year of his age. He had now 
attained to manhood, and, as it may be 
pleasant to many to know something of his 
person and general appearance, I have 
collected, from the most authentic sources, 
the following account of him. 

In his younger years, William Penn was 
tall, strong and active ; and his activity was 
probably increased by his fondness for ath- 
letic and manly sports. In more advanced 
years, though inclined to be corpulent, 
he was still remarkably active ; and is 
said to have been a fine looking, portly man. 
From some of the pictures of him which 
have been seen on coins, on bank notes, &lc., 
one might be led to think his form and 
manners were clumsy and ungraceful ; but 
it is said by his biographers, on the contrary, 
that his address and general deportment were 
graceful and elegant. His appearance was 
always rendered more agreeable, and pro- 
duced a more favorable impression, on account 
3 



26 SKETCHES OF 

of his kindness, and the sweetness of his 
temper. 

But we left him in prison, in Ireland. 
Soon after he was committed, he wrote a 
letter to a noble lord in that country, in 
which he stated his case so fairly, and in such 
agreeable, though manly terms, that it 
procured his release, and he returned to the 
management of his father's estates. 

Meanwhile the unwelcome news of his 
having become a Friend had reached his 
father, in London, who immediately sent for 
him to come home. At first his father did 
not perceive that change in his external 
appearance which he seems to have expected. 
But his custom of not taking off his hat in 
the presence of those who were considered 
his superiors in age, or rank, or wisdom, as 
well as many other little changes, in dress or 
modes of speech, at length convinced him 
that the reports were true, and that his last 



WILLIAM PENN. 27 

efforts to change his views and habits had 
failed. 

Still he was unwilling to give up the point. 
He tried once more to reason him out of his 
religious views, at first beseeching him, almost 
on his knees, to conform to his own wishes 
and to the forms of the established church ; 
and afterwards threatening, to disinherit him, 
if he continued to refuse. But all in vain. 
Though he loved his father tenderly, he was 
not to be moved by any such measures, and 
the father at length gave up all hopes of him. 
As a last request, however, he begged him 
to agree to take off his hat in the presence of 
the duke of York and the king : but after 
taking the matter into consideration for a 
whole night, the son refused to do even so 
much. This last refusal was more than the 
high-minded father could bear, and in the 
height of his anger, he again turned him out 
of his house, resolving to have no more to say 
to him a^ain for ever. 



28 SKETCHES OF 

It may seem very strange to us, that young 
Penn should have persisted so strongly in 
what appears to be a matter of very little 
consequence ; and perhaps most of us shall 
be likely to say that he was rather obstinate. 
We shall say that, in such a little thing, he 
ought most certainly to have yielded to the 
wishes of his father. It is true he was now 
in the twenty-fourth year of his age, and, as 
many would be apt to think, old enough to 
judge and act for himself. Still, as he had no 
family of his own, and was yet a member of 
his father's family, he was as much bound to 
obey his father, or nearly as much so, at least 
in all matters which did not touch his con- 
science, as ever he was. 

But here was the difficulty. It was with 
his conscience. What he thought was wrong 
in the sight of God, if it was ever so small a 
thing, he would no more do, or think of doing, 
than if it was a large matter. And thus it 
was in the matter of pulling off his hat in the 
presence of great persons, persons of distinc- 



WILLIAM PENN. 29 

tion or eminence. He thought it was wrong ; 
and thinking so, all the world could not have 
persuaded him to do it. 

However we may blame Penn, we cannot 
help thinking him sincere. For what was he 
to gain by standing out against his father's 
wishes, in these matters ? He had been 
brought up to no trade or profession, and he 
had no means of support except what came 
to him through his father. And what was 
he to do without his friendship ? How could 
he even subsist? 

But this, it seems, he did not much regard. 
His chief concern, so we are told, was, that 
he was giving so much pain to a father whom 
he tenderly loved, and who had ever been, 
for the most part, very kind to him. But, 
though forsaken, he was not discouraged. 
Nor was he left to suffer at all. His mother 
often wrote him, and sent him money for his 
support ; and he had several other kind 
friends besides. 

3* 



30 SKETCHES OF 



CHAPTER II. 

Penn becomes a preacher and author. Is seized and 
imprisoned in the Tower of London. Remains in 
prison seven months. Employment in prison. Re- 
lease. Goes again to Ireland. Returns. Preaches 
in England. Is arrested again, and sent to Newgate. 
His trial. Attempt to starve the jurors. Sent again 
to prison. His release. Reconciliation with his 
father. His father's death. Inheritance of property. 
Its effects. Seized again. Tried. Condemned to 
six months imprisonment in Newgate. Release. 
Marriage. Residence. Labors. Visit to Holland 
and Germany. Return. Storm at sea. Anecdotes 
about prayer to God. 

In the year 1668, being now full twenty- 
four years of age, Penn resolved to become a 
minister. Not long after he commenced pub- 
lic preaching, he got into a discussion with 
a minister of another sect, on some religious 
doctrine or other ; in which Penn became so 
warmly engaged, that he at length published 



WILLIAM PENN. 31 

a book on the subject. It was called " The 
Sandy Foundation Shaken." This book gave 
great offence to many people, and among the 
rest to the bishop of London. So much was 
indeed said about it, and so much of heresy 
was it supposed to contain, that the author 
was considered by many leading men of the 
day as a disturber of the public peace. Ac- 
cordingly he was seized and sent a prisoner to 
"The Tower."* 



* The Tower of London, often called, without fur- 
ther explanation, The Tower, is generally believed to 
have been built by William I., sometimes called Wil- 
liam the Conqueror ; and if so, is nearly eight hundred 
years old. It is situated close to the north bank of the 
river Thames, at the very extremity of the city, and is 
enclosed by walls and a ditch, the circumference of 
which is 3,156 feet; considerably more than half a mile. 
The space enclosed measures almost thirteen acres. 
Within these walls are a great number of buildings, 
among which are the White Tower, the Church, the 
Ordnance Office, the Mint, the Record Office, the Jewel 
Office, the Horse Armory, the Grand Storehouse, the 
Lion's Tower, and the Beauchamp Tower. 

The White Tower is an edifice three stories high, 
containing muskets and other warlike implements for 



32 SKETCHES OF 

Here he was treated with very great sever- 
ity. He was not only kept in close confine- 
ment, in a dungeon, but v/as not permitted to 
receive visits from any of his friends. Indeed 
he was even told that the bishop of London 
was determined he should either confess his 

30,000 men. The church is famous for being the 
place where were deposited the headless bodies of Anne 
Boleyn and others, who were beheaded there. In the 
record office are kept the rolls, as they are called, from 
the time of King John to Richard III., after which they 
were kept elsewhere. The price of a permission to 
search among these rolls or records is 10s. 6d. ; for 
which you may search one year. In the jewel office 
the crown jewels are kept. In the horse armory are 
kept all sorts of armor, from the time of William I. The 
grand storehouse, 345 feet long and 60 broad, contains 
arms for 200,000 men. In a division of this, called the 
Spanish armory, are many curiosities. Among them 
are the axe which severed the head of Anne Boleyn as 
well as that of the Earl of Essex, and a wooden cannon 
used by Henry VIII. at the siege of Boulogne. The 
Beauchamp tower seems to have been th department 
principally occupied as a prison ; and here Anne Bo- 
leyn, Lady Jane, and other great personages were con- 
fined. Here too, in all probability — though I do not 
know with certainty — Penn was confined. The lion's 
tower contains a great menagerie of curious animals. 



WILLIAM PENN. 33 

errors and renounce them, or else die in prison. 
But all this did not move him. Death, to 
such a man, and for conscience sake, had no 
terrors ; and in a letter to the bishop of Lon- 
don, Penn told him plainly, that his prison 
should be his grave before he would renounce 
his opinions, unless he should see clearly that 
he was wrong ; for " he owed his conscience 
to no man." 

He was confined in the Tower seven 
months, but whether he was kept closely all 
this time does not appear. He was however 
permitted to have his pen and ink ; these were 
not denied him. And with these, and a mind 
like his, we may be sure he was not idle. It 
was here, in prison, that he wrote a book 
which some of my readers may possibly have 
seen, entitled " No Cross, No Crown ;" also 
another work, called " Innocency with her 
Open Face." 

The friends of Penn were by no means idle 
during the whole seven months of his impris- 



34 SKETCHES OF 

onment. Some of them were persons of 
great influence with the .king ; and it is 
thought by many that his father himself, 
whose heart now began to relent, interposed 
in his behalf. But whatever the cause may 
have been, the king was at length moved to 
release him, and he was accordingly liberated. 

We have seen, in the last paragraph, that 
his father's feelings toward him had begun to 
change. He now permitted him to come to 
his house, though he would not as yet see 
him. But as this was a very painful situation, 
and as his hopes of reclaiming him may have 
been again excited, he gave him a commission 
to execute some business for him in Ireland ; 
and the son, ever willing, as I have said be- 
fore, to execute his father's commands, when 
he could do so conscientiously, accepted the 
proposals, and once more departed for Ireland. 

His situation in Ireland gave him consider- 
able leisure for other things ; and this he e n- 
ployed in visiting some of his brethren of the 



WILLIAM PENN. 35 

Society of the Friends, who were imprisoned 
for the sake of their opinions. But he did 
more than visit them ; he drew up a sort of 
petition, in doing which his knowledge of the 
law was of much service to him, and present- 
ed it to the lord lieutenant of Ireland with his 
own hand. In this petition he so ably plead- 
ed the innocency of the imprisoned persons, 
that he succeeded in procuring their release. 

Not long after this, he returned to London. 
On his arrival, his father, who had now be- 
come reconciled to him, received him with 
open arms, and there was great joy in the 
whole family ; and at their particular request, 
he once more took up his residence with them. 

But he had not been long at home, before 
he was involved in new troubles. A law had 
been passed by Parliament, which forbid all 
Dissenters from worshipping God according 
to their own consciences. As Penn contin- 
ued not only to do so, but at times also to 
preach, he was apprehended, and put in 



36 SKETCHES or 

Newgate,* to await his trial at the next 
court. 

When the trial came on, he was charged 
with preaching to an unlawful, seditious and 
riotous assembly. It seems that on going to 
the church, for the purpose of preaching, at 
the time of his being taken, he had found it 
guarded by a band of soldiers, and not being 
allowed to go in, had remained without the 
door, and preached to the assembly in the 
open air. All, however, had been done qui- 
etly on the part both of him and his friends ; 
and the only disturbance had been made by 
the soldiers. But all the disturbance was 
charged on Penn and his friends ; and it was 
even attempted to be shown, that they had 
tried to hold their meeting by force of arms ! 

During his trial, a great many marks of 
indignity and abuse were shown him. For 

* Newgate is the name of the principal prison in 
London, in which criminals are kept, and contains from 
300 to 900. 



WILLIAM PENN. 37 

example, as he did not take off his hat in the 
court room, one of the officers, on a certain 
occasion, pulled it off by force ; and on ano- 
ther occasion, he was fined for the offence of 
keeping his head covered. 

Great pains were taken to prove the 
charges brought against Penn ; but it hap- 
pened that a jury was to try him, many of 
whom were honest men ; and though we do 
not know that any of them were of his reli- 
gious persuasion, they evidently had con- 
sciences. They could not agree on a verdict. 
Four of the twelve were for acquitting him. 
They were sent out by the Court again and 
again, to reconsider the case, and were finally 
told by the clerk of the court that they should 
be locked up without food, or drink, or fire, 
and made to starve if they did not bring in 
such a verdict as the court could accept. 

Penn, who, as it appears, was his own 
lawyer in the case, remonstrated against such 
wicked proceedings, but to no purpose. The 
4 



38 SKETCHES OF 

jury were kept two days and two nights with- 
out the least refreshment. At last those who 
conducted the prosecution, fearing, perhaps, 
that the jurors would actually starve, and yet 
unwilling to yield any thing, contrived the 
matter so as to bring the jury into fault, and 
both they and Penn were all sent off to pri- 
son. The imprisonment of the jury, how- 
ever, as it was found to be unlawful, did not 
last long. They were soon released. Penn 
also was released soon after by means of his 
father's efforts, who was compelled to pay for 
his liberation a heavy fine. 

The feelincfs of Admiral Penn towards his 

o 

son had now experienced an entire change. 
Though he miofht have still believed him 
rather obstinate, yet he knew he was a 
young man of great excellence of character, 
and it was impossible for him to see a son so 
amiable and whom he loved so tenderly, 
reviled and persecuted and imprisoned, 
simply on account of his views of religion, 



WILLIAM PENN. 39 

without being deeply affected by it ; and his 
heart became every day more and m.ore 
bound up in him. Besides, his own health 
was beginnining to fail, and as he was 
apprehensive that his end was drawing near, 
he wanted him at home with him, to 
discharge towards him the last kind offices. 

In this view, and with these feelings, he 
went much farther in his efforts in behalf of 
the young man than the latter could have 
had the least reason to expect. He even 
made an attempt to get a promise from the 
king and from the duke of York, that they 
would protect his son after his death, and not 
let him be so constantly exposed to suffering 
on account of his principles — and what was 
still less to be expected, the king and the 
duke promised to grant his request. 

Not long after this, the father died. On 
his very death bed, however, he encouraged 
his son to go on, saying that if he and his 
friends continued to adhere to their plain way 



40 SKETCHES OF 

of preaching and plain living, they would 
certainly be the instruments of a very great 
reform in the world. 

It must surely have been a great comfort 
to Penn to find his father, in his last 
moments, sustaining and encouraging, and 
even urging him forward in the career he had 
begun. It is no small matter for a young 
man but little over twenty years of age, 
reared amidst riches and show and luxury, 
and at a period when vice is fashionable, and 
dissipation respectable, to have the courage 
to look on rank and titles and splendor in 
their true light, and cast them all behind him ; 
and aim at nothing but that true greatness 
of soul which unfeigned piety only can 
bestow. How much is it to be wished that 
such a moral courage as was possessed by 
Penn, and was thus aided and strengthened 
by the dying request of his venerable parent, 
were more in fashion now a days ! How 
much does the present age need holy, sel 



WILLIAM PENN. 41 

denying parents and children, who will not 
only act right in view of persecution, or even 
of death, but who will actually help each 
other onward, and strengthen each other in 
what they believe to be right, and in what is 
agreeable to the will of God, and accordingly 
to the dictates of their consciences. 

By the death of his fiuher, Penn inherited 
a yearly income of about £1500 sterling; 
equal to more than ^6600. As however, 
money was worth at that time, in England, 
about three times as much as it now is with 
us, that is, w^ould buy three times as much, 
we should regard it as, in effect, a sum equal 
to about $20,000. 

Most young men w^ould be ruined, very 
soon, by the acquisition of such a yearly 
income ; but it did not alter Penn. He was 
just as anxious to do good as ever. He 
never dreamed of exerting himself any the 
less, because he had property. In fact he 
never exerted himself more in discharging 
4# 



42 SKETCHES or 

his duties to God and man, especially in the 
way of travelling about and . preaching, and 
visiting and conversing with people, as a 
minister should do, than for some time after 
his father's death. 

But he had not yet done suffering from 
persecution, notwithstanding his inofFensive- 
ness of manner ; and notwithstanding, too, 
the gracious promises of the king and the 
duke of York, made to his venerable father, 
on his death bed. On returning one day to 
London, after he had been making a short 
tour into the country, and preaching what he 
beheved to be the truth, he experienced once 
more the fury of the populace, or rather of 
their prejudiced and infatuated leaders. As 
he was preaching in a small meeting house 
belonging to the sect of which he was a 
member, he was suddenly pulled down from 
the pulpit by officers sent for the purpose, 
and imprisoned again in the Tower. 

Having been confined in prison a short 






WILLIAM PENN. 43 

time, he was at length brought out for trial. 
But as his judge was one of his most bitter 
enemies, his cliance of a fair trial was utterly 
hopeless. In sliort, the result was that he 
was condemned to suffer six months imprison- 
ment in Newgate, where he was accordingly 
committed. 

While in prison, he spent his time 
principally in writing, and when he was 
liberated he made a tour through Holland 
and Germany, for the purpose of spreading 
his religious principles. What success atten- 
ded these labors is not now known. 

Soon after his return to London, he was 
married. This was in the year 1672. After 
marriage, he took up his abode, for some 
time, in Hertfordshire. 

I might stop here to tell you something 
about his wife. I might tell you how well 
she was adapted to sustain and encourage 
him in the labors he had begun, and in the 
reform which he was attempting. Perhaps, 



44 SKETCHES OF 

however, it is sufficient to say that she was a 
lady of a most excellent character, and that 
she proved to be a most worthy and 
exemplary and pious companion. 

His labors in preaching, writing, convers- 
ing, and defending the cause of the oppressed, 
the persecuted, and the imprisoned, now be- 
came incessant. No man — I repeat it — ever 
disregarded, more than he, the advantages 
which are commonly considered as belonging 
to property. Instead of being less active be- 
cause he was not obliged to exert himself, he 
actually became, every day, more and more so. 

About the year 1677, in company with 
George Fox and Robert Barclay, two emi- 
nent dissenting ministers of his own persua- 
sion, he again visited Holland and Germany ; 
in many parts of which they were received 
with great favor and attention, especially in 
Bohemia. 

In returning from the continent to England 
on this occasion, they encountered a most 



WILLIAM PENK. 45 

violent storm ; and as the vessel was leaky, 
they could not help apprehending great dan- 
ger. Short as the distance was, they were 
at sea three nights and two days, during the 
whole of which time there was a continual 
storm of wind, hail and rain, intermingled. 
Some of the sailors came very near being 
swept overboard. But alarmed as the pas- 
sengers and seamen were in time of danger, it 
was surprising to observe, said Penn, how 
soon they forgot it all, after they got safe to 
land, and returned to their usual idle and 
trifling or profane conversation. 

But Penn is not the only person who has 
observed this trait in human nature. No one 
who has travelled much at sea, can avoid ob- 
serving it. We sometimes witness this strange 
forgetfulness, without going at all from home. 

I knew a boy who, though by no means 
vicious or unmindful of his duty to his parents, 
was forgetful of duty to God; and though he 
was near ten years of age, and had been 



46 SKETCHES OP 

tanght to pray, by his mother, when four or 
five years of age, seemed to have outgrown 
the practice, and for several years had not 
littered a single prayer, not even those short 
and simple ones of his infancy. 

One day an accident befel his brother, 
much younger than himself, of such a nature 
that his life was thought to be in great dan- 
ger. Then it was, for a moment, that God 
was remembered ; and the boy prayed, and 
prayed earnestly. The burden of his prayer 
was, that God would spare his little brother's 
life ; promising at the same time, that if his 
prayer was granted, he would spend the rest 
of ^his hfe in the fear and service of God. I 
repeat it, he seemed to pray with very great 
earnestness and sincerity indeed. 

The little brother recovered in a week or 
two ; but what, think you, was the result ? 
Do you think the elder brother kept his word ? 
Very far from it. In a single month he for- 
got all his solemn promises, and went on the 



WILLIAM PENN. 47 

journey of life again, passing day after day, 
without praying to God or even thinking of 
him. 

But to return to Penn. He at length 
reached his family in safety, having been ab- 
sent about three months, and travelled during 
that time about three thousand miles, besides 
preaching a great many sermons, and holding 
a very great number of religious conversations 
and discussions. 



48 SKETCHES OF 



CHAPTER III. 

New era in the life of Penn. Becomes interested in the 
proviu-^es in America. West Jersey. Prepares a 
constitution for it. Its excellent features. Purchases 
of the king the provin:;e of Pennsylvania. Measures 
for settling it. Provisions in regard to the Indians. 
His letter to them. His directions to his own people. 

We are now come to an entirely new pe- 
riod in the history of Penn. Hitherto we 
have seen him chiefly as a man and a Chris- 
tian ; we are now to view him as a politician 
and a philanthropist. 

The settlement of this western world had 
been begun many years before this time. 
Colonies had been established all alono- the 

o 

Atlantic coast of what now forms the United 
States ; and among the rest, a settlement had 
been commenced in New Jersey, under the 
name ^of East Jersey. West Jersey seems, 



WILLIAM PENN. 49 

as yet, not to have been much settled. This 
was about the year 1680. 

At this time, Penn became interested in 
these New Jersey settlements, especially West 
Jersey ; and the task devolved on him of 
forming a constitution for the colony. He 
prepared for them an excellent code of laws, 
under which the colony went on, for some 
time, very prosperously. According to them, 
no man in the colony was to be seized or 
imprisoned, except by a jury of twelve men 
of the neighborhood, and no person was to be 
imprisoned for debt. If an individual owed 
another, his estate was to satisfy his creditors, 
as far as it would go, and then he was 
to be allowed to work again, for himself and 
family. In addition to these laws, so singular 
for those early days, he made provision in 
the consticution that no one should be 
interrupted or molested, on account of his 
religious opinions. 

Some time before this, Penn and his 
5 



50 SKETCHES OF 

family had removed from Hertfordshire to 
Sussex. This situation appears to have 
afforded him more quiet, and released him 
more from religious services and labors than 
his fomier one. Accordingly we find his 
thoughts turned, very much, towards the 
new colonies in North America, especially 
that of West Jersey. He made such 
arrangements as o^ave great encouragement to 
the settlement there of people of his own 
religious sentiments and such were the 
inducements that he held out, and the 
persecutions they experienced at home in 
England, that it was not long before two 
hundred persons set sail at once for the new 
territory. 

In the year 1681, being engaged in the 
arrangement of his father's affairs, and finding 
that the government owed him the sum of 
£16,000 sterling, as executor to his father, 
he proposed to the king that, instead of 
paying him the money, he should make over 



WILLIAM PENN. 51 

to him a tract of land lying v/est of the 
river Delaware in North America, opposite 
to West Jersey, with a view to form a colony 
there more entirely on his own plan. 
Probably his letters from individuals in that 
region had also convinced him that It was an 
excellent tract of land, and one of the most 
favorable places for the settlement of his 
persecuted brethren, in every respect, which 
he could desire. 

His proposal to the king met, at first, 
Vvith considerable opposition, but the king at 
length accepted it, and a charter was made 
out. The name of the new province was 
called, In the charter, Pennsylvania, in honor, 
not of young Penn, as has been by some 
supposed, but of admiral Penn, his father. 
The young man even protested against it at 
first, lest people should think it was an effort 
of his, to honor his own name. 

Having now become very intimately 
concerned In the formation and settlement 



52 SKETCHES OF 

and government of a new colony, Penn found 
it necessary to give up his connection with 
the province of West Jersey. But this was 
a matter of very httle consequence, as the 
colony was now able to do very well by 
itself, without his aid or assistance. He had 
already sent over about one thousand four 
hundred people to it, many of whom were, 
not the ofF-scourings of society, but persons 
of very great worth and respectability. He 
had also caused the town of Burlington to 
be built. Instead of a howling wilderness, 
the country was nov/ cut up, in many parts 
of it, into farms, and roads had been made ; 
and instead of large tents covered with 
canvass, in which to hold their weekly or 
semi-weekly seasons of divine worship, 
meeting houses had been built. Burlington 
was under the government of wise and 
respectable magistrates ; and the Indians in 
the neighborhood, instead of being excited 



WJLLIAM PENN. 53 

into jealousy and enmity, had been made 
friendly and peaceable neighbors. 

One of the first steps Penn took, in regard 
to the new province, was to draw up in 
writing an account of it. This account, for those 
days, was full and particular, and without 
exaggeration. It was no part of the policy 
of this great man, by an overdrawn picture of 
the new province to raise the expectations of 
people too high, and after having induced 
them to go out there, leave them to the 
disappointment of not finding things as they 
expected ; a course which has often, but 
wickedly, been adopted in regard to new 
countries ; but he wished to have every thing 
according^ to truth ; and sucli it accordingly 
v/as, so far as was in his own power to 
render it so. 

Connected with his account of the 

province, which it seems, he afterwards had 

printed and pubhshed, was a statement of the 

terms on which and on which alone, he was 

5* 



54 SKETCHES OF 

willing to dispose of his land ; which were 
not only favorable to himself, but such as 
were calculated, in the best possible degree, 
to promote the happiness of the new settlers : 
his object being, not so much to make money, 
as to make good citizens and good Christians. 

Among the conditions in regard to the 
sale of his land, was one very singular one; 
at least we should think it so, if it were made 
a condition in the sale of land now. This 
was, that for every five acres of land which 
was cleared by the settlers, one should be 
left with the timber on it. Another was that 
oak and mulberry trees, wherever found, 
should be preserved, for the production of 
silk and the building of ships. 

But nothing shows, in a more striking 
manner, his great wisdom and prudence, than 
the pains he took and the provisions he made 
respecting the Indians. This love for, 
and attention to these poor people, was 
indeed the crowning glory of Penn's 



WILLIAM PENN. 55 

character ; and that which will be the means 
of handing down his name with applause, to 
the latest generations. As it had been usual 
for the planters, in many of the colonies, to 
overreach or cheat the Indians, in trading 
with them, he made the following stipulation 
for their security and benefit. 

Whatever was sold to the Indians, for 
their furs, was to be sold to them publicly, 
in the market place, where it was to be 
tested, whether it was good or bad ; if good, 
it was to pass ; if not good, it was not to be 
sold for good ; in order, as he said, that the 
native Indians '' might neither he abused nor 
provoJced.^^ He ordered, moreover, that no 
man should, by any ways or means, in word 
or in deed, affront or wrong any Indian ; and 
if he did, he should incur the same penalty of 
law, as if he had committed the act against 
his fellow planter ; and if any Indian should, 
by word or otherwise, abuse any planter, the 
planter should not be his own judge in the 



56 SKETCHES OF 

ca.se, entirely ; but the case should be 
brought before the governor or some 
magistrate, who should endeavor to make a 
satisfactory arrangement with the chief or 
king of the tribe to whom the man belonged, 
in regard to him. And lastly, it was 
provided that all differences between the 
planters and the Indians, when they could 
not be settled otherwise, should be left to 
twelve men — a sort of jury — ^six of whom 
should be planters, and six Indians ; in order, 
if possible, to prevent, as he expressed it, 
" all occasions of heart burnings and mis- 
chief." 

What w^isdom was this ! So uncommon is 
it, that it seems almost angelic. Would that 
all our ancestors had been thus wise in their 
dealings with the Indians ! Who can avoid 
the extreraest pain to think how often a 
course was pursued with them as entirely 
different from that which is pointed out in the 
foregoing paragraph as dayliglu is from 



WILLIAM PENN. 57 

darkness. Not only have they been cheated 
and wronged, in regard to their property, but 
alas ! they have been defrauded, as it were, 
out of their morals and their health. 
Io:norant of the sad nature and demoralizing 
tendency of strong drinks, tobacco, &:c., they 
were easily led by those who better knew 
their effects, to the use of these pernicious 
substances, and to those habits which grow 
out of, or result from them, and then they 
were charged with the habit of intoxication, 
as if it were a national crime. How long is 
public opinion to sanction the custom of 
putting weapons of death into people's hands, 
knowing, as we do, at the same time their 
danger, and of making those who receive 
them alone responsible for the evils which 
ensue, while we are permitted to go un- 
injured and perhaps unblamed ! 

I am half disposed, my young friends, to 
present you in this place, with one of Penn's 
early letters to the Indians, sent over to 



58 SKETCHES OF 

America by Jiis friends who first settled in tlie 
new colony, Pennsylvania. It breathes such 
a spirit of kindness, and lets you so completely 
into the good man's character, without being 
at the same time long enough to be tedious, 
that I am sure it will be read with very great 
pleasure. I suppose it was interpreted to 
them by some of those who understood both 
lansfuaoes. 

"London, Sth aioiilh, 1681. 

" My Friends, — TIicil^ is a great God and 
Power which hath made the world and all 
things therein, to v/liom you and I and all 
people owe their being and well being, and 
to whom you and I must one day give an 
account for all that we have done in this 
world. 

" This great God has written .his law in 
our hearts, by which we are taught and 
commanded to love and to help and to do 
good to one another. Now this great God 
hath been pleased to make mc concerned in 



WILLIAM PENN. 59 

your part of the world ; and the king of the 
country where I hve, hath given me a great 
province therein ; but 1 desire to enjoy it 
with your love and consent, that we may 
always live together as neighbors and friends ; 
else what would the great God do to us, 
who hath made us (not to devour or 
destroy one another, but) to live soberly and 
kindly together in the world ? 

" Now I would have you well observe that 
I am very sensible of the unkindness and 
injustice which have been too much exercised 
towards you, by the people of these parts of 
the world, who have sought to make great 
advantages by you, rather than to be 
examples of goodness and patience unto you. 
This, I hear, hath been a matter of trouble to 
you, and hath caused great grudging and 
animosities, sometimes to the shedding of 
blood, which hath made the great God 
angry. 

^' But T am not such a man, as is well 



60 SKETCHES OF 

known in my own country. I have great 
love and regard toward you, and desire to 
win and gain your love and friendship by 
a kind, just and peaceable life ; and the peo- 
ple I send among you are of the same mind, 
and shall, in all things, behave themselves 
accordingly. And if, in any thing, any shall 
offend you or your people, you shall have a 
full and speedy satisfaction for the same, by 
an equal number of just men on both sides, 
that by no means you may have just occasion 
of being offended against them. 

" I shall shortly come to see you myself, 
at which time we may more largely and freely 
confer and discourse of these matters. In the 
mean time, I have sent my commissioners to 
treat with you about land and a firm league 
of peace. Let me desire you to be kind to 
them and the people, and receive the presents 
and tokens which I have sent you, as a testi- 
mony of my good will to you, and of my 



WILLIAM PENN. 61 

resolution to live justly, peaceably, and friendly 
with you. I am your loving friend, 

" William Penn." 

That these sentiments were not intended 
merely to quiet the Indians, but to show that 
what he thus promised he meant to fulfil, if 
possible, I will make an extract from the 
directions which he gave to his friends — some 
of the leading men, I mean — who had to be 
concerned with the Indians. 

" Be tender of offending the Indians, and 
hearken, by honest spies, if you can hear that 
any body inveighs the Indians not to sell, or 
to stand off and raise the value upon you. 
You cannot want those that will inform you ; 
but, to soften them to me and the people, let 
them know that you are come to sit down 
lovingly among them. Let my letter and 
conditions with my purchasers, about just 
dealing, be read in their tongue, that they 
may see we have good in our eye, equal with 
6 



62 SKETCHES OF 

our own Interest ; and after reading ray letter 
and the said conditions, then present their 
kings with what I send them, and make a 
friendship and league with them according to 
these conditions, which carefully observe, and 
get them to comply with you. Be grave ; 
they love not to be smiled npon.^'' 



WILLIAM PENN. 63 



CHAPTER IV. 

Death of Penn's mother. His affection for her. His 
thoughts turned to America. Resolves to go there. 
His advice to his children on leaving them. He sets 
sail. Incidents of the voyage. Arrival at Newcastle. 

About this time, namely, about the begin- 
ning of the year 1682, Penn was afflicted by 
the loss of his mother. The death of a pa- 
rent must, in any event, be a great trial ; but 
it must be especially so in the case of so good 
a mother as Penn's had been. She had 
always stood, as it were, between him and his 
father ; and as I have already told you, had 
comforted and sustained him when banished 
from his home. But he felt it to be not only 
his highest wisdom but his duty to submit, 
without murmuring, to the dispensations of 
Heaven, and he was rather disposed to be 



64 SKETCHES OF 

grateful that her life had been spared so long, 
than to mourn that, in a good old age, she 
was taken away. 

He had, moreover, arrived at a period of 
life, and was engaged in a species of employ- 
ment, that left him less time to think of the 
dead than of the living. He had a great deal 
to do in providing for and advising in regard 
to his new settlement. An opportunity now 
offering, he bought a new tract of land adjoin- 
ing to it on the west, which made him the 
possessor of quite a large province. It was 
at this period, also, or not far from it, that he 
was called to prepare a constitution, or form 
of government, for his new province of Penn- 
sylvania, 

As my readers have already seen, in his 
letter to the Indians, Penn had been long 
meditating a visit to his colony in America. 
He was pained at tlie thought of leaving his 
family, but he thought it a Christian duty to 
do so. Before lie set sail, however, he drew 



WILLIAM PENN. 65 

up, in the form of a letter, a series of instruc- 
tions and rules for the conduct of his children, 
which he left in the hands of their mother, 
with a request that they might be often read 
by and with them, and as he might never 
return, he wished them to be regarded as bis 
dying bequest. I have selected a part of 
them for my readers. They are richly worth 
perusing, and even studying. 

" My Dear Children, 

" That are the gifts and mercies of the God 

of your tender father ; hear my counsel, 

and lay it up in your hearts. Love it 

more than treasure, and follow it ; and you 

shall be blessed here, and happy hereafter. 

" In the first place, ' remember your 

Creator in the days of your youth.' It was 

the glory of Israel in the second of Jeremiah : 

and how did God bless Josiah because he 

feared him in his youth ! and so he did 

Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. O, my dear 

6* 



66 SKETCHES OF 

children, remember and fear and serve him 
who made you, and gave you to me and your 
dear mother ; that you may live to him and 
glorify him in your generations ! 

" To do this, in your youthful days seek 
after the Lord, that you may find him ; 
remembering his great love in creating you ; 
and that you are not beasts, plants, or stones, 
but that he has kept you, and given you his 
grace within and substance without, and 
provided plentifully for you. This remember 
in your youth, that you may be kept from 
the evil of the world ; for in age it will be 
harder to overcome the temptations of it. 

" Wherefore, my dear children, eschew 
the appearance of evil, and love and cleave 
to that in your hearts which shows you evil 
from good, and tells you when you do amiss, 
and reproves you for it. It is the light of 
Christ that he has given you for your 
salvation. If you do this and follow my 
counsel, God will bless you in this world, 



WILLIAM FENN. 67 

and give you an inheritance in that which 
shall never have an end. For the light of 
Jesus is of a purifying nature ; it seasons 
those who love it and take heed to it ; and 
never leaves such, till it has brought them to 
the city of God, that has foundations. O 
that ye may be seasoned with the gracious 
nature of it! Hide it in your hearts, and 
flee, my dear children, from all youthful 
lusts ; the vain sports, pastimes and pleasures 
of the world ; ' redeeming the time, because 
the days are evil !' You are now beginning 
to hve. What would some give for your 
time ; Oh I I could have lived better, were 
I, as you, in the flower of youth. Therefore 
love and fear the Lord, and delight to wait 
on the Lord God of your father and mother. 

" Next, be obedient to your dear mother, 
a woman whose virtue and good name are an 
honor to you ; for she hath been exceeded 
by none in her time for her plainness, 
integrity, industry, humanity, virtue and 



68 SKETCHES OF 

good understanding; qualities not usual 
among women of her worldly condition and 
quality. Therefore honor and obey her, 
my dear children, as your mother and your 
father's love and delight ; nay, love her too, 
for she loved your father with a deep and 
upright love, and though she be of a delicate 
constitution and noble spirit, yet she descend- 
ed to the utmost tenderness and care for 
you, performing the most painful acts of 
service to you in your infancy, as a mother 
and a nurse too. I charge you, before the 
Lord, honor and obey, love and cherish your 
dear mother. 

" Next, betake yourselves to some honest 
industrious course of life ; and that, not of 
sordid covetousness, but for example, and to 
avoid idleness. And if you change your 
condition and marry, choose, with the 
knowledge and consent of your mother, if 
living, or of guardians, or those that have the 
charge of yoiu Mind neither beauty nor 



WILLIAM PExNN. 69 

riches, but the fear of the Lord, and a sweet 
and amiable disposition, such as you can love 
above all this world, and that may make 
your habitations pleasant and desirable to 
you. 

" And being married, be tender, affection- 
ate, patient and meek. Live in the fear of 
the Lord, and he will bless you and your 
offspring. Be sure to live within compass ; 
borrow not, neither be beholden to any. 
Ruin not yourselves by kindness to others ; 
for that exceeds the due bounds of friendship, 
neither will a true friend expect it. Small 
matters I heed not. 

'' Let your industry and parsimony go no 
further than for a sufficiency for life, and to 
make a provision for your children, and that 
in moderation, if the Lord gives you any. 
I charge you help the poor and needy ; let 
the Lord have a voluntary share of your 
income for the good of the poor, for we are 



TO SKETCHES OF 

all his creatures ; remembering that ' he that 
giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord.' 

" Know well your Incomings, and your 
outgoings may be better regulated. Love 
not money nor the world ; use them only, 
and they will serve you ; but if you love 
them, you serve them, which will debase 
your spirits as well as offend the Lord. 

^' Pity the distressed, and hold out a hand 
of help to them ; it may be your case ; and 
as you mete to others, God will mete to you 
again. 

" Be humble and gentle in your conversa- 
tion ; of few words, I charge you ; but 
always pertinent when you speak, hearing 
out before you attempt to answer, and then 
speaking as if you would persuade, not 
impose. 

" Affront none, neither avenge the affronts 
that are done to you ; but forgive, and you 
shall be forgiven of your heavenly Father. 

^' In making friends, consider well first ; 



WILLIAM PENN. 71 

and when you are fixed, be true ; not waver- 
ing by reports, nor deserting in affliction, for 
that becomes not the good and virtuous. 

" Watch against anger, neither speak nor 
act in it ; for, like drunkenness, it makes a 
man a beast, and throws people into despe- 
rate inconveniences. 

" Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in 
disguise ; their praise is costly, designing to 
get by those they bespeak ; they are the 
worst of creatures ; they lie to flatter, and 
flatter to cheat ; and, which is worse, if you 
believe them, you cheat yourselves, most 
dangerously. But the virtuous, though poor, 
love, cherish, and prefer. Remember David, 
who, asking the Lord, *' Who shall abide in 
thy tabernacle? who shall dwell upon thy 
holy hill ? ' — answers, ' He that walketh up- 
rightly, worketh righteousness, and speaketh 
the truth in his heart ; in whose eyes the vile 
person is contemned, but honoreth them who 
fear the Lord.' 



72 SKETCHES OF 

" Next, my children, be temperate in all 
things ; in your diet, for that is physic by 
prevention ; it keeps, nay, it makes people 
healthy, and their generation sound. This is 
exclusive of the spiritual advantage it brings. 
Be also plain in your apparel ; keep out that 
lust which reigns too much over some ; let 
your virtues be your ornaments, remembering 
^ life is more than food, and the body than 
raiment.' Let your furniture be simple and 
cheap. Avoid pride, avarice, and luxury. 
Read my 'No Cross, No Crown. ^ There is 
instruction. Make your conversation with 
the most eminent for wisdom and piety ; and 
shun all wicked men, as you hope for the 
blessing of God, and the comfort of your 
father's living and dying prayers. Be sure 
you speak no evil of any, no, not of the 
meanest ; much less of your superiors, — as 
magistrates, guardians, tutors, teachers, and 
elders in Christ. 

*'Be no busy bodies; meddle not with 



WILLIAM PENN. 73 

Other folks' matters, but when m conscience 
and duty pressed ; for it procures trouble, and 
is ill manners, and very unseemly to wise 
men. 

" In your families, remember Abraham, 
Moses, and Joshua, their integrity to the 
Lord ; and do as you have them for exam- 
ples. 

" Let the fear and service of the living God 
be encouraged in your houses, and that plain- 
ness, sobriety and moderation in all things, as 
becometh God's chosen people ; and as I ad- 
vise you, my beloved children, do you coun- 
sel yours, if God should give you any. Yea, 
I counsel and command them as my poste- 
rity, that they love and serve the Lord God 
with an upright heart, that he may bless you 
and yours from generation to generation. 

^'Finally, my children, love one another 
with a true endeared love, and your dear re- 
lations on both sides, and take care to preserve 
tender affection in your children to each 
7 



74 SKETCHES OF 

Other; so may God, that hath blessed me 
with his abundant mercies_, both of this and 
the other and better life, be with you all, 
guide you by his counsel, bless you, and 
bring you to his eternal glory ! that you may 
shine, my dear children, in the firmament of 
God's power, with the blessed spirits of the 
just, that celestial family, praising and adoring 
him, the God and Father of it, for ever." 

Having bid farewell to his family, he sailed 
in the ship Welcome, for America. A new 
persecution against his brethren, the Friends, 
had just broken out in England, so that they 
were at this time fleeing, in great numbers, to 
America ; and nearly one hundred went out 
in the same vessel with Penn. Nothing oc- 
curred which was remarkable during the pas- 
sage, except the breaking out of the small 
pox on board of the vessel, of which about 
thirty passengers died. Their sickness and 
suffering gave free scope to the benevolence 



WILLIAM PENN. 75 

of such a man as Penn. He was almost con- 
stantly among the sufferers, endeavoring, in 
one way or another, to afford them relief. 

Some of the books which mention this 
voyage, say that they were more than six 
months on the passage ; but this cannot be 
true. They were probably something more 
than two. They sailed from England in 
August, 1682, and landed at Newcastle in 
the Delaware, October 24. The place of 
their landino^ ou-'ht to be remembered with 
the same sort of regard as we remember Ply- 
mouth, the landing place of the Puritans. 

After taking possession of the country, and 
making a few other necessary arrangements, 
Penn called together a general assembly of 
his people, in order to confirm the laws and 
regulations he had prepared for their govern- 
ment, while in England. 

The constitution he had formed would be 
too long for insertion here. I will only say, 
that his leading principle, and that on which 



76 SKETCHES OF 

he based the whole constitution, was religion ; 
that vital religion which has its root in the 
heart, and which by its pure spirit governs 
our actions ; and tliat, next to religion, he 
took care to make provision for mental 
instruction. One article of the constitution 
required that public schools should be 
established, and that every child should be 
taught to read and write, " till arrived at the 
age of twelve, after which he was to learn 
some useful trade or profession, and so be 
preserved, at once, from the dangers of 
ignorance and the temptations of idleness." 
He only allowed of punishment by death in 
cases of murder or treason against the state ; 
all other crimes were to be punished by 
solitary confinement and useful employment. 
The mention I have just made of his 
attention to education, reminds me of his 
enlarged views of that subject. He often 
spoke of the great importance of a virtuous 



WILLIAM PENN. 77 

education for youth. The following is 
extracted from some of his writings. 

" I take the freedom to say, that, if we 
would preserve our government, we must 
endear it to the people. To do this, besides 
the necessity of presenting just and wise 
things, we must secure the youth. This is 
not to be done but by the amendment of 
their way of education. The government is 
a sort of trustee for the youth, who, though 
now minors, yet will have the government 
when we are gone. Therefore depress vice, 
and cherish virtue ; that through good 
education they may become good, which will 
truly render them happy in this world, and a 
^ood way fitted for that which is to come." 

The following will give us some idea of 
what be thought a good education consisted 
in. How different his notion of it from that 
narrow one which often prevails, even in our 
time, when we boast so much of improve- 
ment in these matters. 
7* 



78 SKETCHES OF 

^' If we went to Windsor Castle, or 
Hampton Court, it would be strange not to 
observe and remember the situation, the 
building, the gardens, the fountains, he, that 
make up the beauty and pleasure of such a 
seat. 

" And yet how few people know 
themselves ! No, not their own bodies, the 
houses of their minds, the most curious 
structure of the world, a living , walking 
tabernacle ; nor of the world of which it was 
made, and out of which it is fed, which it 
would be so much our benefit as well as our 
pleasure to know. 

" The world is a great and stately volume 
of natural things, and may not improperly be 
styled the hieroglyphics of a better. But 
alas ! how very few leaves of it do we 
seriously turn over ! This ought to be the 
subject of the education of our youth, who, 
at twenty, when they should be fit for 
business, know nothing of it. " It would go 



WILLIAM PENN. 79 

a great way to caution and direct people in 
their use of the world, were they better 
studied and knowing in the creation of it. 
For how could men find the conscience to 
abuse it, while they should see the great 
Creator look them in the face, in all and 
every part thereof?" 

It is a proof also of his great love for the 
diffusion of knowledge, that he left his 
library — a very valuable one — a legacy to 
the public. 

If it should surprise some persons that a 
great and good man, who was truly friendly 
to education and religion, did not do more to 
educate and Christianize the Indians, the 
reply is, that Penn probably thought there 
was a great work of preparation to be made, 
in the first place. As a skilful farmer first 
prepares his ground before he sows his seed, 
so it seemed to be the object of Penn to 
gain first the full confidence of the Indians, 
and lead them gradually, by a love of the 



80 SKETCHES OF 

fruits, to seek, for themselves, the tree of 
knowledge and excellence from which they 
were derived. And if the followers of Penn 
had all pursued the same course of conduct 
with himself, such in all probability might 
have been the final result. 

The Indians called Penn by the name of 
Onas.'* They more than merely esteemed 
him ; they loved him as a father. They 
often expressed their affection for him in very 
strong terms. Their love and respect for him 
has been handed down to their posterity. As 
an evidence of their esteem for him, may be 
mentioned the saying of an Indian chief, at a 
treaty held at Philadelphia, about the year 
1740, that he was a very wise and good man, 
and that he hoped that when his soul ascend- 
ed to God, a person might be found to govern 
the province who was just hke him. 

* Onas, in the Indian language, signified a quill. 
This may possibly account for the name which they 
gave to their friend Penn. 



WILLIABI FENN. 81 



CHAPTER V. 

Penn's treaty with the Indians. The ehii tree at Ken- 
sington. Anecdotes of it. Scarcity of provisions. 
The Indians hunt for the whites. Founding of Phi- 
ladelphia. Directions of Penn about building it. 
Cultivation of the country. What was doing for the 
Indians. 

One of the earliest measures which Penn 
adopted after his arrival at Newcastle, was to 
gather together the Indians, and make a treaty 
with them. For though he had bought the 
province of Pennsylvania of the king of Eng- 
land, yet he was not willing to settle on it, 
without buying it fairly of its native owners. 
He had even bought it long before this, or 
rather, his commissioners had bought it for 
him ; but he was anxious to have a public 
meeting, and ratify or complete the agree- 
ment. 



82 SKETCHES OF 

A day and place having therefore been 
appointed, Penn and his friends, consisting of 
men, women, and young persons of botli sexes, 
repaired to the spot, to meet the Indians. 
This spot was Coaquannoc, the Indian name 
for Philadelphia. When they arrived, the 
Indian chiefs and their tribes were assembling 
in such numbers that the woods seemed to be 
full of them, as far as the eye could reach. 
They were also armed, which must have 
made them look friditful enough to the 
whites, who were but a handful, and, as it is 
said and is most probable, had no weapons. 

But though the assembly was convened at 
Coaquannoc, they did not make the treaty 
there. They repaired to Shackamaxon, a 
little way out of the city, to the north-east, 
the present site of Kensington. Here, close 
by the bank of the Delaware river, stood an 
elm tree, which, at that time, was very large. 
To this the leaders on both sides repaired, 



WILLIAM FENN. 83 

approaching each other under its widely 
spreading branches. 

As for Penn, he appeared in his usual 
clothes. He had no crown, no sceptre, no 
sword, no halberd. He had nothing to dis- 
tinguish him but a sky-blue sash round his 
waist, made of silk net work. On his right 
and left hand were his secretary, and a few 
particular friends ; the rest of his people 
followed in the rear. Penn himself carried 
in his hand a parchment containing the treaty 
to b-e formed. Before him were carried 
various articles of merchandize, which, when 
they came near the Indian sachems, were 
spread on the ground. 

The chief sachem now placed on his own 
head a chaplet, or wreath, in which was a 
small horn. This with the Indians was a 
signal that the place and the occasion were 
sacred, and that no person present had now 
any right to injure or molest any other per- 
son. No sooner had he done this, than all 



84 



SKETCHES or 



the Indians threw down their bows and arrows^ 
and seated themselves round their chiefs, on 
the ground, in the form of a half moon 
Then the chief sachem told Mr. Penn, by 
means of an interpreter, that they were ready 
to hear what he had to say. 

Think, young reader, if you can, what a 
solemn scene this must have been ! Why, 
the Indians, numerous and armed as they 
were, could have destroyed Penn and his 
party in a few moments. And yet we find 
them not only refusing to hurt a hair of their 
heads, but setting down on the ground, under 
an elm tree, and making a treaty of peace 
and friendship with them. 

Penn made quite a long and excellent 
speech to them. Then he paid them for the 
land, and gave them the presents he had 
brought. '' Having done this," says Clarkson, 
in his Life of Penn, " he laid the roll of 
parchment on the ground, observing that the 
ground should be common to both people. 



WILLIAM PENN. 85 

He then added that he would not do as the 
Marylanders did, that Is call them children or 
brothers only, for parents were apt to whip 
their children too severely, and brothers 
would sometimes differ. Neither would he 
compare the friendship between him and 
them to a chain, for the rain might sometimes 
rust it, or a tree might fall and break it, but 
he should consider them as the same flesh 
and blood as the Christians, and the same as 
if one man's body were to be divided into 
two parts. He then took up the parchment 
and presented it to the Sachem, who wore 
the horn in the chaplet, and desired him and 
the other Sachems to preserve it carefully for 
three generations, that their children might 
know what had passed between them, just as 
if he had remained himself with them to 
repeat it." 

The Indian chiefs also made speeches, but 
they are not preserved. We only know that 
they promised to live in love with Penn and 
8 



86 SKETCHES OF 

his children, as long as the sun and moon 
should endure. It is to be regretted that a 
record of this treaty and of all that was said, 
was not preserved. It is one of the most 
remarkable treaties ever made, and one that 
was never broken. 

The elm tree, under which this treaty was 
made, was very large, and was standing till 
the year 1810, when it was blown down. 
Its trunk measured twenty-four feet in cir- 
cumference, and its age was ascertained, after 
its fall, to be 283 years.* 

Every branch and fibre of the tree which 
had once covered the head of such a man 
as William Penn, was of course regarded 
almost with veneration. Walking sticks, 
snuff boxes, and a variety of other articles, 
made from it, have been accordingly scattered 
over this and other countries, particularly 

* The age of a tvee is ascertained by counting the 
circular rings in the wood when the trunk is sawed ofl' 
One of these rings grov/s every year. 



WILLIAM PENN. 87 

England. A large piece of it, sent to John 
Penn, of England, was made an ornament 
for one of his apartments, with the following 
inscription on it. 

"A remnant of the great elm under which 
the Treaty was held between William Penn 
and the Indians, soon after his landing in 
America, A. D. 1682; and which grew at 
Kensington, near Philadelphia, till the au- 
tumn of the year 1810, when it fell, during a 
storm. Was presented to his grandson, 
John Penn, Esq." 

To show how much the famous elm tree 
of which I have been speaking, was revered, 
not only by Americans but by Englishmen, 
it is proper to say that when the British held 
Philadelphia, in 1775, and were often cutting 
up the trees in the country round for fuel, 
and the elm tree became somewhat endan- 
gered. Gen. Simcox ordered a guard of 
British soldiers to protect it. 

When Penn first came over from England, 



88 SKETCHES OF 

he found in his colony, besides the English 
who had come over the preceding year, two 
or three thousand Dutch and Swedes. All 
these people were greatly rejoiced at his 
arrival — the Dutch and Swedes apparently 
as much so as his own countrymen, the 
English. After his arrival, the population of 
the colony increased much faster than ever. 
Not far from this period the whole number 
in the colony was estimated at about 6000. 

Winter was approaching, and some of the 
people were not provided with houses. They 
went to work, and with the advice and as- 
sistance of Penn, erected huts, which, though 
not very substantial, were far better than 
none. The following is the general plan on 
which they were constructed. 

Each hut was to be 30 feet long and 18 
wide, with a partition in the middle so as to 
form two rooms. It was to be both covered 
and lined with clapboards, and the space 
between the outside clapboards and the 



WILLIAM PENN. 89 

inside lining boards, was to be filled up with 
earth, to keep out the frost and snow. The 
ground floor was to be of clay. The roof 
was covered with clapboards. 

Some, who arrived too late to build even 
these temporary houses, dug large holes in 
the banks of the river, where they were high 
and dry, and lived in them. These last were 
called caves. 

It was not long before the inhabitants of 
the new colony of Pennsylvania, became so 
numerous that there seemed to be danger of 
suffering for want of those provisions which 
they had not had time to raise, and could not 
buy from any neighboring settlements. But 
the Indians, who considered them all as the 
children of their good friend Onas, were 
ready to hunt for them, and to do every kind 
office for them in their power. Pigeons, 
also, just at this time were so numerous, that 
it is said the air was sometimes darkened with 



90 SKETCHES OF 

them ; and they flew so low that they could 
often take them by knocking them down. 

Philadelphia, or the Great City, as Penn 
was accustomed to call it, seems to have been 
planned by him as early as 1681, but was 
not reall}^ founded till 1682. In planning it, 
he had shown great judgment and fore- 
thought, and its beauty and opulence will 
stand as monuments to future ages, of his 
sound practical wisdom. Some of the direc- 
tions he gave in regard to its arrangements, 
show also that in founding it, he had some- 
thincr else in view besides his own asrsfran- 
dizement. The following are extracts from 
the directions which he gave his commission- 
ers on the subject. They confirm the truth 
of what I have just been saying about his 
wisdom and forethought. 

" Let the rivers and creeks be sounded on 
my side of the Delaware, especially upland, 
in order to settle a great town, and be sure to 
make your choice where it is most navigable, 



WILLIAM PENN'. 91 

high, dry and healthy. Such a place being 
found out, lay out 10,000 acres contiguous to 
it, in the best manner you can, as the bounds 
and extent of the liberties of said town. 

" Be sure to settle the figure of the town 
so that the streets hereafter may be uniform 
down to the water from the country bounds. 
Let the place for the state house be on the 
middle of the quay, which will yet serve for 
market and state house too. Let the houses 
be built on a line, or upon a line as much as 
may be. 

" Pitch upon the middle of the plat where 
the town or line of houses is to be laid or 
run, facing the harbor and great river, for the 
situation of my house, and let it not be the 
tenth part of the town, as the conditions 
say, viz : That out of every hundred thou- 
sand acres shall be reserved to me ten 
thousand. But I shall be contented with less 
than a thirtieth part, to wit : 300 acres, 



92 SKETCHES OF 

whereas several will have 200 by purchasing 
two shares. 

*' The distance of each house from the 
creek or harbor should be, in my judgment, a 
measured quarter of a mile, at least two 
hundred paces, because of building hereafter 
streets downwards to the harbor. 

" Let every house be placed, if the person 
pleases, in the middle of its plat, as to the 
breadth way of it, that so there may be 
ground on each side for gardens, or orchards, 
or fields, that it may be a green country town, 
which will never be burnt, and always be 
wholesome." 

Thus did the founder of Philadelphia 
propose to lay out his favorite city on a large 
and liberal, and noble scale ; and every one 
who has beheld that beautiful place, may see 
at once, that its present appearance conforms, 
in no small degree, to the original plan, as 
described in the last paragraphs. 

The following paragraph will serve to show 



WILLIAM PENN. 93 

what he was doing at this time, in the way of 
clearing and cultivating the country. It is 
extracted from one of his letters to a friend. 

" I am now casting the country into town- 
ships for large lots of land. I have held an 
assembly, in which many good laws were 
passed. I have annexed the territories lately 
obtained, to the province, and passed a gene- 
ral naturalization law for strangers, which 
hath much pleased the people. As to out- 
ward things we are satisfied ; the land good, 
the air clear and sweet, the things plentiful, 
and provision good and easy to come at ; and 
an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and 
fish. In fine, here is what Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob would be well contented with ; 
and service enough for God, for the fields are 
here white for harvest." 

Of the rapid progress of affairs, especially 
in the city, we may judge from the following 
sentences from a letter to Lord North, of 
England, dated July, 1683. 



94 SKETCHES OF 

"About 80 houses are built, and I suppose 
above 300 farms settled, as contiguous as 
may be. We have had since last summer, 
about sixty sail of great and small shipping, 
which we esteem a good beginning. A fair 
we have had, and weekly market. 1 have 
also bought lands of the natives, treated them 
largely, and settled a firm and advantageous 
correspondency with them." 

But Penn's heart was principally, or at 
least very largely, set upon the improvement 
of the Indians. Such was his anxiety for 
their good, that we are told by one of his 
biographers that he laid out several thousand 
pounds to instruct, support, and oblige them. 
So intent was he on their civilization and 
improvement, that before the end of 1684, he 
had made treaties of amity and good will 
with no less than nineteen different tribes. 



WILLIAM PENN. 95 



CHAPTER VI. 

Pergecution in England. Penn goes there. Solicits 
the king. The king's death. John Locke the philo- 
sopher. The new king of England. Penn's famil- 
iarity with him. This^ raises up enemies. A new 
book. The dissenters — among them were 1200 
Friends — set at liberty. Tour to the Continent. 
Return. Arrest. Trial. Acquittal. Toleration 
act. Another trial and acquittal. A third trial and 
acquittal. Thinks of going to America. Attends the 
funeral of George Fo.x. Attempts to seize him 
again. His retirement. Is proscribed by the queen; 
but not taken. New troubles. Death of his wife. 

While all things were going on so pleasant- 
ly in Pennsylvania, however, news of a very 
unpleasant nature was received from Eng- 
land. The poor dissenters of that country, 
especially the Friends, were persecuted with 
great violence. So many of the latter, and 
often, too, of individuals whom Penn well 
knew, were subjected to fines and imprison- 



96 SKETCHES OF 

ment on account of their religion, that he at 
length determined to return to England, and 
endeavor, by his own joersonal interest, to 
improve their condition. 

Accordingly, having made all things ready, 
he set sail for England, and after a favorable 
passage landed there in October, 1684, with- 
in a few miles, as it is said, of his own house ; 
and had the very great pleasure of finding his 
family and friends all in perfect health. He 
went immediately to the king to see what 
could be done for his persecuted brethren, 
and had obtained a very favorable promise 
from him ; but the king's sudden death soon 
after, left things in the condition they were 
before Penn's arrival. 

One kind act he was, however, able to per- 
form in favor of a fellow student, and a great 
philosopher. I refer to the case of the cele- 
brated John Locke. This man, on account 
of his opposition to popery and arbitrary 
power, had been deprived, by the king, of 



WILLIAM PENN. 97 

his place as student at Oxford, with all its 
rights and benefits; and, as it appears, had 
fled to Holland. By means of Penn's inter- 
ference, the philosopher was pardoned, and 
allowed to return to England ; though he 
does not appear to have accepted the pardon, 
because he seems to have thought that by 
accepting it, though innocent, he would seem 
to own he had been guilty. 

With a view to cultivate an acquaintance 
with the new king, Penn now took lodgings 
for himself and his family near the court. 
In this attempt to influence his sovereign to 
acts of clemency, he appears not to have 
been entirely unsuccessful. He exerted him- 
self chiefly in behalf of those who were 
suffering on account of their religious prin- 
ciples. 

At length, he became quite a favorite with 
the king; and the latter did not hesitate to 
impart to him many of his secrets and coun- 
sels. They spent so much time in conversing 
9 



98 SKETCHES OF 

together that some of the peers grew envious. 
It no doubt seemed strange to them that his 
majesty should vakie so highly the society of 
a plain man, dressed in a plain garb, while 
others in their gayer dresses w^ere considered as 
only secondary companions. One of these 
growing somewhat impatient, ventured to tell 
the king one day that from his talking so 
much with Penn, it seemed as if he did not 
value his nobility very highly. To whicli, 
however, the king only replied that Penn 
always talked ingenuously, and he heard him 
willingly. 

Penn's intimacy with the king being soon 
found out. procured for him, in one respect, a 
great deal of trouble. Those who had favors 
to ask of the king came to him to induce him 
to intercede in their behalf; and many who 
would never have ventured to lay their re- 
quests before the king, had not Penn been 
his favorite, ventured to do so now. Hence 
his house and gates were daily thronged with 



WILLIAM PENN. 99 

suppliants, desiring liim to present their 
claims and addresses to bis majesty. There 
were sometimes two hundred or more present 
at a time. 

It often happens in this world, that let a 
man's purposes be ever so disinterestedly 
benevolent, his efforts are not appreciated as 
they should be ; and sometimes they are en- 
tirely misconstrued. Thus it became, at 
length, with the efforts and labors of Penn at 
the court of James II. The king was favor- 
able to the papists ; and it was at length 
whispered abroad that Penn was only a papist 
in disguise ; and that he was secretly plotting 
with the king- ag^ainst the Protestants. 

Among those who thought so meanly of 
him was the very highly distinguished Arch- 
bishop Tillotson. A correspondence ensued 
between them, which ended in a full convic- 
tion on the part of the bishop that he had been 
in the wrong, and that Penn's conduct was 
open, manly and sincere. 



iOO SKETCHES OF 

It was at this period that Penn wrote and 
pubhshed a work, entitled .a '' Persuasion to 
Moderation." Whether this object had 
much or Httle influence on the minds of the 
king and his counsellors, is not known ; but 
certain it is, that a great change in their 
minds took place about this period ; for they 
issued a proclamation of pardon to those who 
were in prison for conscience' sake. Among 
those who were thus liberated were no less 
than twelve hundred of the society of the 
Friends. 

How must the heart of Penn have been 
gladdened by this triumphant and happy issue 
of his labors ! Well might he afford to spend 
his time, day after day, in conversation with 
the king, if the result was to become instru- 
mental in effecting such a vast am.ount of 
good ; for whatever influence his book may 
have had on the king's mind, his conversations 
are believed to have had much more. Nor 
were his exertions made on behalf of his suf- 



WILLIAM PENN. 101 

fering brethren alone ; for multitudes of peo- 
ple of other denominations received their 
liberty in consequence of his untiring efforts 
and labors. 

When he had completed, in the most happy 
manner, his mission at the court of king James, 
he made a tour to the continent. After visit- 
ing various countries, and laboring with all 
his might to extend his views of freedom of 
conscience and religious toleration, he return- 
ed once more to England, 

The prejudices which grew out of his inti- 
macy with a king, who was now generally 
believed to be a Catholic, became at length 
so strong as to stand very much in the way 
of his further usefulness in London, or indeed 
in England. But the flight of the king to 
France, and the establishment of William and 
Mary on the throne, made the matter still 
worse, and even involved him in great danger 
of being persecuted himself. 

Now it was that he would gladly have 
9* 



102 SKETCHES OF 

gone to America, and sought a peaceful and 
quiet home in the midst of his friends of the 
new colony. But vvould it do for him, he 
probably asked himself, to leave the country 
in present circumstances ? If he were to do 
so, would not those who had been long en- 
deavoring to fix on him the charge of being a 
secret fiiend of popery, begin to think him 
indeed guilty ? On the whole, conscious of 
innocence, he determined to " avoid every 
appearance of evil," and remain where he 
was, at least for the present. 

But the flame was already so far kindled 
that it was impossible for him to escape ; for 
while walking in the streets of Whitehall, 
soon after, the lords of the council sent for 
him, and entered at once into an examination 
of his condu.ct. Being permitted to defend 
himself, he pleaded his own case in the most 
simple and unaffected manner ; but what he 
said did not seem to satisfy them. He was 
obliged to give security for his appearance on 



WILLIAM PENN. 103 

the first day of the next court, after which he 
was discharged. 

But when the time came for his trial, though 
he came forward promptly and seasonably to 
answer the charges which might be brought, 
no person could be found to testify against 
him. Nobody was ready or willing to say 
that he was a Jesuit or a papist, or that he 
had secretly aided or encouraged the king in 
his attempts to establish popery. The con- 
sequence was that he was soon acquitted. 

Not long after this, the British government 
passed an act, called the Toleration Act, by 
means of which great favors were extended 
to all dissenters, and to the Friends among 
the rest. This event was gratifying in the 
highest degree to Penn ; and there is great 
reason to believe it was chiefly owing to his 
writings, conversations, and other labors. 

His mind once more turned towards Amer- 
ica. His presence there, owing to certain 
changes in the government, seemed indispen- 



104 SKETCHES OF 

sably necessary. And he was the more wil- 
ling to go, because the object of his highest 
hopes — the passage of the toleration act, by 
which the sufierings of his fellow dissenters 
seemed to be at an end — was accomplished, 
and no work of mao-nitude in England re- 
mained for him to do. But no sooner had 
he begun to make preparations for his intend- 
ed voyage, than he was arrested by a body of 
soldiers, and brought before the lords of the 
council for another examination. 

The charge now preferred against him — 
strange to tell — was, that he had held a pri- 
vate and secret correspondence with king 
James, since his departure to France, — than 
which nothing could have been more unjust. 
It is true, a letter was produced in court, di- 
rected to him by king James, but which had 
been stopped by the way. To this fact Penn 
of course answered by saying that he could 
not be blamable for a request of this sort made 
by the king, which he never received ; and 



WILLIAM PENN. 105 

that, though he loved him as a friend, he 
should be among the last to place him on the 
throne again, in place of a monarch much 
more excellent, if he had it in his power. 
King William seemed quite convinced of his 
innocence ; but some of the council having 
doubts, he was ordered to give bail for his 
appearance at the next court ; but when the 
time of trial came, no one coming forward to 
accuse him, he was, as before, honorably ac- 
quitted. 

Again his eyes were turned towards Amer- 
ica, but the threatened invasion by the French, 
during king William's absence in Ireland, 
greatly alarming the queen, she exerted her- 
self to the utmost for the defence of the na- 
tion, and in order to fix a dread in the minds 
of the supposed conspirators with king James, 
she published a proclamation for apprehend- 
ing many persons, among whom was Penn. 
Here then we see him once more in prison, 
and, in this instance, he appears to have lain 



106 SKETCHES OF 

in prison, before his trial came on, for some 
time. At the trial, howeyer, nothing could 
be proved against him, and he was again ac- 
quitted. 

And now, surely, the reader will say, noth- 
ing could hinder him from going to America. 
But it was not so. The trials of the good 
man were not yet ended. He was destined, 
in the providence of God, to still further suf- 
ferings. 

Just before he was ready for departure, 
George Fox, the founder of the Society of 
Friends, died in London, and Fenn had the 
satisfaction of performing the last offices of 
friendship to him while living, as well as the 
sad honor of attending his remains to the 
place of interment. Here he spoke at some 
length, to about '2000 persons. In conse- 
quence of the secret efforts of his enemies, a 
plot was, even now, laid to seize him — on 
what grounds I do not learn — and officers 
were sent to take him while attending Fox's 



WILLIAM PENN. 107 

funeral ; but arriving too late, they concluded 
to return home, without accomplishing their 
object. 

The old question was now revived in the 
mind of Penn, whether under the circumstan- 
ces of suspicion in which he was placed, it 
w^as proper for him to leave the country, and 
go to America. Were he to go there, it 
would not aid him, however, in eluding the 
law, as he would still be a subject of Great 
Britain, though in America, and could at 
any time be taken and brought back. But 
had it not been so, he was too honest and 
open and artless to think of incurring the 
suspicion of appearing to fly from a punish- 
ment which he knew he did not deserve. 

But as he would not fly from danger, on 
the one hand, so he would not expose him- 
self to it unnecessarily where he w^as. He 
resolved therefore to live in retirement in 
London. Accordingly he took private lodg- 
ings in that great city, where he employed 



108 SKETCHES OF 

himself chiefly in religious exercises, and in 
study, and in receiving the visits of a few 
choice friends. 

The idea of living in retirement in a city, 
may be new to some of my younger readers. 
But perhaps there are few situations in the 
world where a person can be so retired as in 
a very large city. 

I have often wondered at what I regard as 
the superior wisdom of this great man. With 
his unbounded zeal to do good, few of our 
modern reformers would have been willing, 
as 1 think, to have shut themselves up, as he 
did, in London. They would have thought 
they were called to face danger and death, 
conscious, as they were, of their own inno- 
cence. They would have gloried in the idea 
of making a sacrifice. But not so with Penn. 
No man, since the days of Luther, has been 
bolder than he, when duty seemed to require 
it. And yet no man since the times of John 
and James and Peter and Paul, has combined 



WILLIAM PENN. 109 

prudence with his boldness, better than Wil- 
liam Penn. 

While thus living in retirement in London, 
Penn was visited by his old friend Locke. 
The philosopher now had it in his power to 
offer the same services to Penn, which the 
latter had, a few years before, offered to him. 
But Penn, though grateful for the goodness 
of heart which prompted to the offer, refused 
to accept a pardon for the same reason which 
had been assigned by Locke for refusing to 
accept his. 

When he had been in retirement about six 
weeks, another proclamation was issued for 
his apprehension ; but though he did not en- 
tirely secrete himself, he kept, for the most 
part, in his lodgings, and was not disturbed. 

He spent his time, now, in writing, as it 

was the only means left him of doing good 

to his fellow creatures, and a man of his 

stamp could not be idle. It was by no means 

10 



no SKETCHES OF 

the sort of life he would have chosen, but he 
knew how to be reconciled to it. 

But now a new trial seemed to await him. 
The health of his wife, which had long been 
declining, rapidly became worse ; and she 
seemed to be in a very dangerous state. She 
was not so strong by nature as some persons, 
but it is highly probable, that the trials and 
hardships of her husband had greatly worn 
upon her. Woman is indeed distinguished 
for her fortitude : but she can bear her own 
trials far better than those of her husband. 

His enemies, in England, not willing to let 
him alone, now attempted to injure him in 
another way. Some little disturbances 
having arisen in Pennsylvania, during his 
absence, and the story of these disturbances 
having come to the ears of these British 
enemies, they immediately set about trying to 
convince the king and queen that Penn was 
not capable of governing a province ; and 
that Pennsylvania would be ruined unless the 



WILLIAM PENN. Ill 

control of it was taken out of his bands. At 
length the king and queen appeared to 
believe it, and they appointed a new 
governor. 

It was impossible for a feeling mind, like 
that of Penn, not to have been pained by such 
an act of gross injustice. Deprived, at once, 
of the hope of being a father to a peaceful 
and happy and prosperous colony ; of doing 
the great good he had meditated, to the 
numerous tribes of Indians there; of the 
friendship of the king and queen which he had 
so lately enjoyed ; slandered and reviled also 
by his enemies, and suspected by his best 
friends, and compelled to watch over the 
sick — and as he feared — the dying bed of his 
dear wife ; is it strange if so many afflictions, 
coming upon him at once, should have 
weio-hed him down ? But it was not so. 
He was as quiet as a lamb. He had a 
conscience " void of offence." He had 
cliosen God as his friend and father, from his 



112 SKETCHES OF 

early youth, and this consoled him. He 
believed that, dark as every thing now seemed 
to be, all things would " work together " 
finally " for good." 

As his property all or nearly all lay in 
Pennsylvania, the new order of things had 
made him rather poor. But poverty, though 
it seemed to him an evil, he could bear very 
well, had it not been for the expense of a 
sick family. However, he was resolved to 
trust still in God. 

It was now that the tide of events began, 
once more, to turn in his favor. Some of his 
friends in England, who were men of 
influence, and who had long known him and 
watched his whole conduct and character, 
united their efforts and stated his case to the 
king. They represented him as a sufferer 
on account of his great conscientiousness, and 
begged earnestly that something might be 
done to restore him to the public favor and to 
his rights. The king was convinced of his 



WILLIAM PENN, 113 

innocence, and made proclamation accord- 
ingly. Penn himself, however, does not 
seem to have heen quite satisfied with this 
way of being released from suspicion, for he 
afterwards obtained permission to have a 
public trial, which ended in his complete and 
honorable acquittal. This was about the 
year 1693. 

This was a time of great joy, both to him 
and his friends ; but to none more so than to 
his poor wife. It must have been a source 
of great satisfaction to her, in her w^eak state, 
to see her dearest earthly friend restored to 
his place in society, and released, in a good 
measure, from those most unworthy suspi- 
cions which had so lono[ hung; over him. But 
though it greatly encouraged her, and seemed 
to infuse new life into her, it could not save 
her — she was too far gone for that. She now 
gradually declined from day to day, till at last 
she expired in the arms of her husband, and 
in the joyful hope of a glorious resurrection. 
10* 



114 SKETCHES OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

Penn in his family. He attempts to recover his lost 
possessions in America. His success. His reputa- 
tion again rises. Anecdote of Fuller. Missionary- 
labors. Marriage to a second wife. Death of his 
son. He sails with his fimily for America. Phila- 
delphia. Penn's house. Pennsburg. The Indians. 
An Indian feast. Anecdotes of Penn. More troubles. 
Goes to England. Troubles in regard to his pro- 
perty. Ill conduct of his eldest son. Dishonesty of 
his steward. He lives for some time within prison 
limits. Mortgages his property to regain his liberty. 
Attack of apoplexy. His death. 

After the death of his wife, Penn spent 
his time almost entirely with his children ; 
and never, it is said, was there a more tender 
parent. But this every one may know by 
readmg his letter to them, which I have 
already mentioned. 

At length he made an effort to recover his 
lost possessions in America. For this 



WILLIAM PENN. 115 

purpose he sent a petition to the king, stating 
in strong, but coirect terms, his case. In 
this effort, too, he was successful. Colonel 
Fletcher, whom the king had appointed 
governor of Pennsylvania in his stead, was 
removed, and Penn reappointed. The king 
even went farther than he had expected, and 
not only replaced him and declared his 
innocence, but stated that the troubles which 
had happened in Pennsylvania, instead of 
being any fault of his, grew out of his 
absence. 

He was now rapidly recovering that 
reputation of which he had been so long 
unjustly deprived ; and as the mass of 
mankind are ever ready to go to extremes — 
to praise to day, to persecute tomorrow, and 
then again praise more loudly than ever the 
next day — so Penn seemed likely now to 
stand higher in the estimation of his 
countrymen than ever before 

An anecdote will serve to show how things 



116 SKETCHES OF 

now went with him. At the time of 
attempting to take him prisoner at the funeral 
of George Fox, an infamous wretch by the 
name of Fuller had sworn falsely against him, 
and it was on the strength of his statements, 
under oath, that the warrant had been made 
out. But now it was that Fuller's character 
had become more publicly known, and he 
had already received, for some of his mis- 
deeds, a disgraceful punishment. 

For a short time, at this period, Penn 
allowed himself to leave his family long 
enough to make a kind of domestic missionary 
tour through the counties of Gloucester, 
Devon, Somerset and Dorset, which produc- 
ed a good deal of excitement among the 
people whom he visited. 

Several years having elapsed, from the 
death of his first wife, he was again married. 
This was about the beginning of the year 
1696. His principal employment, about this 
period, appears to have been that of 



WILLIAM PENN. 117 

preaching. Why he did not go at once to 
Pennsylvania, we are not told by his 
biographers. 

In the same year, 1696, he was again 
afflicted, in the loss of his eldest son, a very 
promising young man, about twenty years of 
age. He died of consumption. His father 
had spent the three months which immedi- 
ately preceded his decease at his bedside ; 
for he was not merely a tender father, but an 
excellent nurse. 

It was not far fi'om this period, that Peter 
the Great of Russia, came to England to 
learn the art of ship building, that he might 
know how to lay the foundation of a Russian 
navy. Hearing he was at work in the king's 
dock yard at Deptford, Penn and some of his 
friends resolved to visit him. The Czar 
seemed glad to see them ; conversed with 
them very freely, and they gave him some 
books. He was so much pleased with them, 
that he afterwards attended their meetings at 



118 SKETCHES OF 

Deptford, and heard them with great atten- 
lion. More than even this, howevero 
Sixteen years afterward, ' when he was at 
Frederickstadt in Holstein with an army, one 
of his first inquiries was, whether the friends 
of Penn held meetings there ; and on finding 
that they did, he and many of his Russian 
lords attended. 

In September, 1699, Penn set sail with his 
wife and children for America, to take 
charge, once more, of the government of 
Pennsylvania. They had a long and tedious 
voyage,. of about three months. But it was 
well for them that it was so, for a very fatal 
disease — probably the yellow fever — was, at 
this time raging in Philadelphia, and by being 
kept at sea so long, they escaped it. Of the 
precise mortality of the disease which raged 
and what it was, we do not now know. It 
is perhaps sufficient for us to say that when 
Penn and his family arrived, the health of 
the place was nearly restored. 



WILLIAM PENN. 119 

He landed amidst a great crowd of people, 
and immediately went to the house of the 
deputy governor ; from whence, after resting 
a few moments, he went immediately to 
meeting ; it being on the Sabbath. The 
next day, he proceeded to take charge of the 
affairs of the government. 

All the people seem to have been very 
glad of his return. Even those who had 
been his enemies rallied round him and now 
became his supporters. The Indians, too, 
when they heard of the arrival of their friend 
Onas, were as glad as the whites. 

Philadelphia, at the time of his quitting it 
to go to England, contained about one 
hundred houses. Now, sixteen years later, 
it contained about seven hundred houses, 
though some of them had been almost 
depopulated by the fever. 

Penn's house was in Second Street, but it 
has now disappeared. There is an account 
of it, however, in Watson's Annals of 



120 SKETCHES OF 

Philadelphia, and 1 believe a picture of it. 
There is a house — a feather store rather — - 
near Dock Square, in Boston, which was 
built in 1680 — that is, before Penn came to 
Philadelphia ; and there are some in the 
northern part of the city which are still 
older. 

Penn resided chiefly at a place called 
Pennsburg, which was, however, about 
twenty four miles north eastward of 
Philadelphia, nearly opposite where Borden- 
town in New Jersey now stands : at the very 
easternmost part of the State of Pennsylvania. 
The spot was first fixed on soon after his 
famous treaty with the Indians. 

But Pennsburor was not a villa2;e, as some 
of you may suppose. I believe it consisted 
of no other house but that of Governor Penn. 
It is very much the fashion with the English 
to give their residences a sort of family name. 
In the lower counties of Virginia, which was 
settled, as you know, principally by English 



WILLIAM PENIf. 121 

people, there are a great many houses which 
have quite a distinguished name ; as Litch- 
field, Thornton, &c. Strangers in Virginia, 
when they hear it is so far to Thornton, for 
example, expect they are coming to a 
village : whereas, on their arrival, they find 
nothing but an elegant mansion ; with 
perhaps a few huts near it for slaves. 

But I was going to say a little more about 
Pennsburg. As late as the Revolutionary 
war, the decayed walls of the mansion house 
were still standing, though somewhat in ruins, 
and a hedge pear tree, growing among them. 
Near by was an old malt house and some 
other buildings, and an avenue of walnut 
trees along the road. Opposite, in the river, 
are several beautiful islands. There was a 
large garden containing many fruit trees, and 
there were pleasant fields around. On the 
roof of the house, it is said there was a fish 
pond; but I suppose it could have been 
nothing but a large cistern. 

11 



122 SKETCHES Of 

Penn spent much of his time, in the latter 
part of his hfe, amonoj the Indians. Some- 
times he preached among them. Sometimes 
he only made them visits, and ate and drank 
and talked with them. Sometimes, also, he 
received visits from the Indians. 

Perhaps you already know that many 
learned men have thought our North 
American Indians were of Jewish origin. 
They suppose that they crossed Asia, and by 
crossing, in due time Beering's straits, 
perhaps on the ice, in the winter, found 
their \\ay here. John Eliot, the famous 
Indian apostle, as he has been called, was of 
this opinion ; and so was Penn. 

This may account in part, for the labors of 
love which these two great men performed 
among the Indians ; but not wholly. They 
were both benevolent men — they loved their 
neighbor as themselves. The poor Indians 
were their neighbors ; they were in a most 
degraded and miserable condition, and the 



WILLIAM PENN. 123 

greater their ignorance and misery, the more 
they wanted to enhghten them and make 
them better. 

In one of Penn's excursions from Penns- 
burg, he attended an Indian feast. I should 
like to give you a brief account of it. 

'•' The entertainment was given by the 
side of a beautiful spring, carpeted probably 
with soft grass, and canopied, we are told, by 
the overshadowing of lofty trees. Their 
repast consisted of venison, for which several 
bucks were killed, and hot cakes of wheat 
and beans." The entertainment was con- 
cluded by certain kinds of amusements of 
which the savages were fond ; and though 
Penn was a grave man, and not very fond of 
amusements, especially noisy ones, yet, for 
the sake of peace, he suffered them. 

I have already told you that Penn 
sometimes received visits from the Indians. 
The Indians chiefs and their wives — the 
kings and queens— were especially his favor- 



1-24 SKETCHES OF 

it.es. Whether he ever made feasts for them^ 
we are not exactly told ; but nothing is more 
likely. 

Here follow a few anecdotes of Penn, 
collected from his life, by Clarkson, which 
serve to show his simple character, habits, 
and feelings. 

In going to Haverford, to attend a meeting 
one day, he overtook a little girl who was 
also going thither. He was on horseback, 
and the little girl was on foot and barefooted. 
Having fallen into conversation with her, and 
found out where she was going, he asked her 
to ride with him. She accepted the 
invitation, and though without shoes or stock- 
ings, and probably not well dressed, he carried 
her to the meeting. I dare say some people 
stared to see Gov. Penn come into town in 
such a plight ; but probably this would have 
made no difference with him. 

Another anecdote of Penn is related here, 
because it took place about the same time^ 



WILLIAM PENN. 125 

and because it is somewhat curious and in- 
structive. A boy about twelve years of age, 
son of a man at whose house he one night 
lodged in his travels about Pennsylvania, 
being a lad of great curiosity, and not often 
having the opportunity of seeing so great a 
guest as Gov. Penn, privately crept to his 
chamber door, up a flight of steps on the out- 
side of the building, and peep'ng through the 
latchet hole, he was struck with awe in be- 
holding him on his knees by the bed side, 
and in hearing what he said ; for he could dis- 
tinctly hear him returning thanks to God for 
his protection and merciful care of him and 
his people, the Pennsylvanians. The cir- 
cumstance made an impression on the boy's 
mind that lasted as long as he lived. 

I do not, of course, undertake to commend 
so unmannerly an act as that of peeping into 
a person's bed-chamber, or listening to his 
prayers ; but the anecdote serves to show 
how great folks are regarded by children, and 
11* 



126 SKETCHES OF 

how eager they are to see them ; and that 
Penn, like Washington, was a man of prayer^ 
Great stations in life do not excuse us from 
lives of prayer and faith, but rather the con- 
trary. They should only make us feel the 
more need of God's blessing on us and those 
over whom we are placed. 

Penn, though plain, was very neat in his 
dress. Many people think that to be plain is 
to be negligent and slovenly ; but this is a 
great mistake. I do not mean to intimate that 
Penn was very particular in his appearance, 
but rather that he was cleanly. He was as 
neat in his person as he was in his clothing. 
He generally w-alked with a cane. His cane 
was his companion almost every where, even 
in his study. 

He was fond of carving likenesses of people, 
especially in ivory ; for wdiich he had consid- 
erable skill. Such however, was his sense 
of the great value of time, that it is said he 
but seldom indulged himself in this practice. 



WILLIAM PENN. - 121 

Like Eliot, the Indian Apostle, he was a 
great enemy to the use of tobacco. I wish 
all those who have had to do with the In- 
dians had been equally so. The following 
anecdote will show how strong Penn's detes- 
tation of this filthy weed was. 

Several of his friends at Burlington being 
engaged in smoking one day, it was told them 
that Gov. Penn's barge was in sight, and com- 
ing up the river ; but they supposed he was 
going to Pennsburg. Suddenly, however, he 
landed in Burlington, and entered the very 
house where they had been smoking. On 
seeing him coming in, they had concealed 
their pipes, but the smell of the tobacco 
smoke was so strong, that he perceived, at 
once, what they had been doing, and in the 
way of a gentle reprimand told them he was 
glad they were at last ashamed of their old 
habits. 

Penn, though constitutionally grave, was 
cheerful, and sometimes inclined to be a little 



128 SKETCHES OF 



W 



itty. On the occasion of his coming to 
Burlington, just mentioned, some of his friends 
expressed surprise at his getting along up the 
river with his barge, when he had the wind 
and tide both against him, to which he re- 
plied, very humorously, " that he had been 
sailing a2:ainst wind and tide all his life." 

Having a great deal of business to perform, 
Penn was a great economist of his time. He 
was therefore regular and methodical in all 
his movements, and in all the concerns of his 
family, even to their religious worship. In 
the winter, every member of his family was 
required to be up by seven o'clock in the 
morning ; in the spring at six ; in the summer, 
at five ; and in the fall, at six. Nine o'clock 
was the hour for breakfast, twelve for dinner, 
and seven for supper ; they retired to bed at 
ten. Prayer and religious reading were at- 
tended to every morning and evening, in 
which the whole family joined. The ser- 
vants were obliged, every night, to render to 



WILLIAM PENN. 129 

their master and mistress an account of what 
they had done during the day, and to receive 
instructions in regard to the next day. On 
the days of pubhc worship, none of his family 
were allowed to be absent, unless sick or 
otherwise unavoidably detained. 

In the year 1690, a history of the Old and 
New Testament was published in England, 
with 260 engravings, each of which was to 
be made from a design furnished by some 
distinguished person. King William and 
Queen Mary, each of them furnished one. 
In general they were intended to illustrate 
some parable or some fact mentioned in the 
Bible. Among the rest, Penn was required 
to furnish one. 

The subject of the plate which he gave, 
was the Parable of the Talents. The rich 
man appeared sitting with his steward and 
others at a large table, where there was pen, 
ink, and scrolls of paper. Two of those who 
had received the talents stood near the table. 



130 SKETCHES OF 

He who had received the largest share, had 
laid his five bags upon it. These the steward 
had examined, and he was then entering the 
amount of them in a book. He who had 
received the two talents was seen standing 
with his two bags in his hand, ready to lay 
them on the table when called on, and to 
deliver his account. He who had received 
but one, was seen kneeling with one knee, 
and with his bag also near him on the ground, 
and lifting up his hands and imploring mercy. 
At a little distance appeared the hole in the 
ground, from which the bag had been taken, 
close to which were lying the pickaxe and 
spade which had been used in digging it up. 
Penn was one of the kindest men in the 
world to poor people. It often happens that 
men who are esteemed great are rather back- 
ward to show kindnesses to the poor. But 
the poor of all sorts were among the strongest 
friends of Penn, and found in him one of their 
most bounteous benefactors. 



WILLIAM VENN. 131 

He was a man of great sensibility. Those 
who were acquainted with him often saw the 
tears start in his eye at the relation of tales of 
wretchedness and wo; and what is equally 
remarkable, at the relation of peculiar kind- 
ness. The latter trait is shov/n by the follow- 
ing anecdote : 

Two missionaries, about this time, on land- 
ing in Bermuda, were immediately ordered to 
the Government House, and though still 
shivering and faint from the effects of sea 
sickness, were ushered at once into the pres- 
ence of the Governor. Such was the haste, 
and such the sternness of the officers, that 
they expected nothing from the Governor 
but rough usage, and perhaps imprisonment. 
But to their very great surprise, they were 
received by the Governor with the greatest 
kindness. He not only furnished them with 
refreshments and entered into friendly conver- 
sation with them, but finding how weak and 
feeble they were, lent them his own horses, 



132 SKETCHES OF 

to enable them to proceed to their place of 
destination ; and the next day furnished them 
with horses to travel about the island with, in 
the fulfilment of the duties of their mission. 
When this story was related to Penn, by one 
of his friends, he wept like a child. 

But it is time to return to the thread of 
our history. We are now drawing rapidly to 
its close. 

After the lapse of a year or two of peace 
and happiness in America, Penn became once 
more involved in troubles. I cannot go into 
the particulars. I will only say, that the 
difficulties grew out of the envy of persons in 
England, and that he at length found it neces- 
sary to make a journey thither. 

He did not go, however, till he had made 
every possible arrangement for leaving the 
province quiet and prosperous. He left the 
care of government in the hands of one Logan, 
whom he had long known, and who was wor- 
thy of being trusted. Having done this, he 



WILLIAM PENN. 133 

set sail, accompanied by his family, and after 
a voyage of six weeks, arrived in England. 
This was about the year 1701 or 1702. 

This appears to have been the last journey 
he ever made across the Atlantic ; for though 
he lived many years longer, he seems to have 
spent his days in England. 

He had not been long in England, before, 
as it is said, he began to experience new trou- 
bles in regard to property. He had spent 
much of his property, as it appears, in New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania, in various ways of 
doing good, and had been defrauded of much 
which he had not expended ; so that he had 
actually become poor. He did not, indeed, 
often complain of his poverty, though he 
sometimes just mentioned it. '' But I had 
rather be poor," he used to add, " with a 
loving people, than be rich with an ungrateful 
one." I ought, perpaps, to say, that he still 
owned property in America ; but it did not 
bring him in any money. 
12 



134 SKETCHES OF 

But his poverty was not his sorest afflic- 
tion, after all. One remained which it was 
much more difficult to bear.- He had been 
absent from home much, as we have already 
seen ; and there is great reason to fear that 
his wife, though a woman of excellent inten- 
tions, had not done every thing, in the way 
of managing the sons, that could have been 
desired. To govern children in the best 
manner, requires the united efforts of both 
father and mother. 

Not only had the father been absent from 
home a great deal, in America, and thus, as 
it appears, suffered his sons, his eldest son 
especially, to go a little ungoverned, but he 
had now taken a course which was likely to 
add fuel to the flame. He was living in Lon- 
don ; and a worse place for strong-headed 
young men, who had not learnt to govern 
themselves, could not have been found. 
There are a thousand temptations in every 



WILLIAM PENN. 135 

city, but especially in such a great city as 
London. 

We are not informed exactly what the son 
did in London which grieved his father ; but 
only that the latter, to reform him, sent him 
over to America. This, however, does not 
appear to have effected the object, for the 
son became disgusted, or got into difficulty 
in Philadelphia, or both, and went back to 
England. In the year 1707, he became in- 
volved in greater pecuniary troubles than ever. 
This happened through the dishonesty of a 
steward, whom he had trusted too confidently. 
The result was, that Penn was imprisoned for 
debt, and though he was allowed the privilege 
of living where he pleased within the prison 
limits, yet the situation was by no means an 
agreeable one. In order to regain his. liberty, 
he mortgaged his property in Pennsylvania 
for six thousand pounds sterling. 

He was now more than sixty years of age_, 
and had seen a great deal of hardship. It is 



136 SKETCHES OF 

not to be wondered at, therefore, that his 
health should begin to fall ; which was ac- 
tually the case. Still he was not wholly dis- 
abled from pursuing business for many years. 
His calm, even temper enabled him to bear 
the infirmities of age, as well as the troubles 
in which he was involved both by his enemies 
and his son, much better than he could other- 
wise have done. Finding the air of the city 
to disagree with his health, however, he re- 
moved, in 1710, to Buckinghamshire, where 
he spent the remainder of his life. 

In 1712, he had three fits of apoplexy. 
His next four years were passed in a state of 
almost entire helplessness ; though his mind 
was not so much impaired but that he could 
converse with his friends, and join with them 
in their prayers, and sometimes preach to 
them in short addresses. The pain of his 
situation was very much mitigated by the 
kindness of friends, and especially by that of 



WILLIAM PENN. 137 

his wife ; for which he was particularly grate- 
ful. 

From 1716 to the summer of 1718, the 
powers of his body and mind gradually failed 
him. He scarcely knew his most intimate 
friends, or could walk without leading , and 
for some time previous to his death, he was 
almost entirely insensible. He died, July 30, 
1718, aged seventy-four years. 

He had four sons and three daucrhters. 
William, the eldest son, who had given him 
so much trouble, seems to have remained in 
Europe. His three remaining sons, John, 
Thomas, and Richard, removed to America, 
and were all of them afterwards concerned, 
more or less, in the government of Pennsyl- 
vania. 



